CVE-2019-20461
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedAn issue was discovered on Alecto IVM-100 2019-11-12 devices. The device uses a custom UDP protocol to start and control video and audio services. The protocol has been partially reverse engineered. Based upon the reverse engineering, no password or username is ever transferred over this protocol. Thus, one can set up the camera connection feed with only the encoded UID. It is possible to set up sessions with the camera over the Internet by using the encoded UID and the custom UDP protocol, because authentication happens at the client side.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · moderate confidenceThe Alecto IVM-100 security camera uses a custom UDP protocol for video/audio services that performs authentication entirely client-side using only an encoded UID. No username or password is ever transmitted over this protocol, allowing anyone who possesses the encoded UID to establish camera sessions over the Internet without any valid credentials.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify Alecto IVM-100 cameras on your networkScan your network for devices with the hostname or MAC vendor identifier corresponding to Alecto IVM-100, or check your DHCP lease tables and device inventories for this specific modelAffected if Any Alecto IVM-100 camera is present on your network
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Verify UDP service exposureScan the camera's IP address for open UDP ports typically used by this device (check common ports like 554, 8554, or vendor-specific UDP ports in the 10000-60000 range). Use: nmap -sU -p- <camera_ip>Affected if UDP ports used by the camera's video/audio service are open and accessible
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Check internet-facing exposureDetermine if the camera's IP or the UDP service port is reachable from the public internet by attempting to connect from an external network or reviewing firewall rules and port forwarding configurationsAffected if The camera's UDP services are accessible from the internet without VPN or firewall filtering
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Assess authentication configurationReview the camera's firmware settings via its web interface or API to confirm whether the custom UDP protocol is enabled and whether it relies solely on encoded UID for authentication (this may be indicated by 'UID-only' or 'no authentication' mode in the security settings)Affected if The custom UDP protocol is enabled and configured to use UID-only authentication without username/password requirements
You are affected if an Alecto IVM-100 camera with its custom UDP video/audio protocol enabled is exposed to the network, particularly if that network access is internet-facing, because the encoded UID authentication can be bypassed by anyone who obtains the UID.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataIsolate camera devices behind a properly configured firewall or VPN, do not expose UDP services directly to the Internet, and contact the vendor for a firmware update that implements proper authentication. Network segmentation is critical to prevent unauthorized camera access.
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation6.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2019-20461 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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