CVE-2018-18984 | Medtronic 9790, 2090 CareLink, and 29901 Encore Programmers Missing Encryption of Sensitive Data

Medtronic CareLink and Encore Programmers do not encrypt or do not sufficiently encrypt sensitive PII and PHI information while at rest .

Published: 2018-12-14 Last update: 2026-06-16 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2018-18984 is rated Low Risk (26.7/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.32%). Mandatory action: Monitor for updates and reassess as exploit intelligence or EPSS changes.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2018-18984

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-06-15 0.06% 0.32% +0.25%
2 2023-03-07 0.89% 0.06% -0.82%
3 2022-02-04 0.89%

Full EPSS history (4 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2018-18984

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
4.6 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:P/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:P)
Hands-on access—USB, keyboard, opening the case—not something you do purely over the wire.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
0.9 3.6 [email protected]
4.6 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:P/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:P)
Hands-on access—USB, keyboard, opening the case—not something you do purely over the wire.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
0.9 3.6 [email protected]
2.1 2.0 LOW
AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N Click to expand
Access vector (AV:L)
Requires local access to the target system.
Access complexity (AC:L)
Exploitation conditions are straightforward and predictable.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:P)
Partial confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:N)
No integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:N)
No availability impact.
3.9 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2018-18984

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2018-18984

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
medtronic carelink_2090_programmer_firmware cpe:2.3:o:medtronic:carelink_2090_programmer_firmware:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
medtronic carelink_9790_programmer_firmware cpe:2.3:o:medtronic:carelink_9790_programmer_firmware:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
medtronic 29901_encore_programmer_firmware cpe:2.3:o:medtronic:29901_encore_programmer_firmware:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2018-18984

cvelogic Threat Intelligence