Airport Base Station FirmwareOperating system · Apple

CVE-2019-8575

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2020-10-27
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 7.8.1 or later.
See remediation →
84/100
Remediation priority · High
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

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 · unedited
The issue was addressed with improved data deletion. This issue is fixed in AirPort Base Station Firmware Update 7.8.1, AirPort Base Station Firmware Update 7.9.1. A base station factory reset may not delete all user information.

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 confidence

This is a data remanence vulnerability in Apple AirPort Base Station firmware where a factory reset operation fails to properly delete all user configuration data, credentials, and network information. An attacker with physical access to a disposed or stolen device could potentially recover sensitive user information that was believed to have been wiped.

MitigationUpdate AirPort Base Station firmware to version 7.8.1 or 7.9.1. For end-of-life devices that cannot be updated, physical destruction should be considered before disposal to prevent data recovery.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
Airport Base Station FirmwareOperating system
Affected:< 7.8.1

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
None
Availability
None

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N

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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify your AirPort Base Station model
    Locate the model number on the bottom of the device (such as AirPort Extreme, AirPort Express, or AirPort Time Capsule)
    Affected if The device is an Apple AirPort Base Station of any model
  2. Check the current firmware version via AirPort Utility
    Open AirPort Utility (on Mac: /Applications/Utilities/AirPort Utility.app), select your base station, and view the version number shown in the device overview window
    Affected if The displayed firmware version is below 7.8.1
  3. Verify firmware version via web admin interface
    Connect to the base station admin page (typically http://10.0.1.1), log in, and navigate to the summary or status page to view the firmware version
    Affected if The firmware version shown is 7.8.0 or earlier, or any version below 7.8.1
  4. Check if factory reset has been performed
    Review device history or logs if accessible, or consider whether the device was recently reset to factory defaults
    Affected if A factory reset was performed on firmware below 7.8.1, meaning sensitive data may still be recoverable from the device

Your environment is affected if you have an AirPort Base Station running firmware version 7.8.0 or earlier, especially if the device has been factory reset and may be disposed of or accessed by untrusted parties.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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 data
Upgrade available Upgrade to 7.8.1 or later
Fixed in 7.8.1
Interim mitigation

Update AirPort Base Station firmware to version 7.8.1 or 7.9.1. For end-of-life devices that cannot be updated, physical destruction should be considered before disposal to prevent data recovery.

Fix this in Airport Base Station Firmware Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
18.0 hours of engineering $3,200
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Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2019-8575 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.

References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2019-8575 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data