IpadosOperating system · Apple

CVE-2019-8803

HIGH · 8.4 CVSS v3.1 Published 2019-12-18
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 6.1 / 10.15.1 or later.
See remediation →
89/100
Remediation priority · High
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
An authentication issue was addressed with improved state management. This issue is fixed in iOS 13.2 and iPadOS 13.2, macOS Catalina 10.15.1, tvOS 13.2, watchOS 6.1. A local attacker may be able to login to the account of a previously logged in user without valid credentials..

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 local authentication bypass vulnerability in Apple's iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, and watchOS allowed an attacker to login to an account of a previously logged in user without valid credentials, caused by improper session state management that failed to properly invalidate or clear prior user authentication states.

MitigationApply the vendor-supplied patches: update iOS devices to 13.2+, macOS to 10.15.1+, tvOS to 13.2+, and watchOS to 6.1+ to address the authentication state management flaw.

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
IpadosOperating system
Affected:< 13.2
Iphone OsOperating system
Affected:< 13.2
Mac Os XOperating system
Affected:< 10.15.1
TvosOperating system
Affected:< 13.2
WatchosOperating system
Affected:< 6.1

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
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/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 the device type and operating system
    Determine whether the device runs iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, or watchOS. For iOS/iPadOS, go to Settings > General > About. For macOS, use System Preferences > About or run 'sw_vers' in Terminal. For tvOS, go to Settings > General > About. For watchOS, open the Watch app on paired iPhone and go to General > About.
    Affected if Any Apple device running an affected OS version (see version checks below)
  2. Check iOS or iPadOS version
    On iOS/iPadOS, view the version number in Settings > General > About (look for 'Version' field). Compare it against the affected range: any version lower than 13.2.
    Affected if The version shown is less than 13.2 (for example, 13.1.3, 13.1, 13.0, 12.x)
  3. Check macOS version
    On macOS, view the release version in System Preferences > About (look for 'macOS' or 'Version' field). Alternatively, run 'sw_vers -productVersion' in Terminal. Compare it against the affected range: any version lower than 10.15.1.
    Affected if The version shown is less than 10.15.1 (for example, 10.15.0, 10.14.x, 10.13.x)
  4. Check tvOS version
    On Apple TV, go to Settings > General > About and view the version number. Compare it against the affected range: any version lower than 13.2.
    Affected if The version shown is less than 13.2
  5. Check watchOS version
    Open the Watch app on the paired iPhone, go to General > About, and view the watchOS version. Alternatively, on the Apple Watch go to Settings > General > About. Compare against the affected range: any version lower than 6.1.
    Affected if The version shown is less than 6.1

The device is affected if it is running any version of iOS, iPadOS, tvOS, or watchOS prior to 13.2, or macOS prior to 10.15.1, and if the device had a previously authenticated user session that was not properly cleared.

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 6.1 / 10.15.1 / 13.2 or later
Fixed in 6.110.15.113.2
Interim mitigation

Apply the vendor-supplied patches: update iOS devices to 13.2+, macOS to 10.15.1+, tvOS to 13.2+, and watchOS to 6.1+ to address the authentication state management flaw.

Fix this in Ipados 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

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dbcve dependency scanner

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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-2019-8803 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