dbcve.org
Airport Base Station FirmwareOperating system · Apple

CVE-2019-8578

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2020-10-27
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 7.8.1 or later.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
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
A use after free issue was addressed with improved memory management. This issue is fixed in AirPort Base Station Firmware Update 7.8.1, AirPort Base Station Firmware Update 7.9.1. A remote attacker may be able to cause arbitrary code execution.

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 · high confidence

A use-after-free vulnerability in Apple AirPort Base Station firmware allows a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code due to improper memory management. The vulnerability is fixed in firmware versions 7.8.1 and 7.9.1.

MitigationUpdate AirPort Base Station firmware to version 7.8.1 or 7.9.1. If devices cannot be updated, consider network isolation or replacement, as the critical severity (CVSS 9.8) indicates high exploitability.

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
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 checks

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

  1. Identify AirPort Base Station devices on the network
    Check network inventory or physically inspect for Apple AirPort Express, AirPort Extreme, or AirPort Time Capsule devices. These are the hardware models running AirPort firmware.
    Affected if Any AirPort Base Station model is present in the environment
  2. Locate the firmware version through AirPort Utility
    Open AirPort Utility (available on macOS or iOS), select the device, and view the current firmware version displayed in the device summary window.
    Affected if The displayed firmware version is lower than 7.8.1
  3. Check firmware version via web interface
    Access the AirPort Base Station admin page by entering its IP address in a web browser. Navigate to the base station status or summary page to view the firmware version field.
    Affected if The reported firmware version is 7.7.9 or earlier, or any version below 7.8.1
  4. Confirm network accessibility
    Verify whether the AirPort Base Station admin interface is reachable from untrusted networks or the internet. Check router/firewall rules for port 5009 or port 80/443 accessibility from external IPs.
    Affected if The device admin interface is exposed to WAN or untrusted networks, making remote exploitation possible

The environment is affected if any Apple AirPort Base Station device is running firmware version 7.8.0 or earlier and is network-accessible to potential attackers.

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.

dbcve · scoped
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. If devices cannot be updated, consider network isolation or replacement, as the critical severity (CVSS 9.8) indicates high exploitability.

Recommended fix Moderate confidence

AirPort Base Station Firmware 7.9.1 (or 7.8.1 minimum)

  1. Locate the AirPort Base Station device requiring update
  2. Connect to the AirPort Base Station via AirPort Utility (macOS) or the AirPort app (iOS)
  3. Open AirPort Utility or the AirPort app and select the base station
  4. Check the current firmware version under the base station's info or summary
  5. If the firmware version is below 7.8.1, initiate a firmware update through the utility's firmware update option
  6. Allow the update to complete without interrupting power to the base station
  7. Verify the firmware has been updated to version 7.8.1 or 7.9.1 after the process finishes

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Airport Base Station Firmware Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing1.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
6.0 hours of engineering $1,090
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,744.

Scan for this in your stack

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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 sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2019-8578 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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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