CVE-2019-12789

Exp

An issue was discovered on Actiontec T2200H T2200H-31.128L.08 devices, as distributed by Telus. By attaching a UART adapter to the UART pins on the system board, an attacker can use a special key sequence (Ctrl-\) to obtain a shell with root privileges. After gaining root access, the attacker can mount the filesystem read-write and make permanent modifications to the device including bricking of the device, disabling vendor management of the device, preventing automatic upgrades, and permanently installing malicious code on the device.

Published: 2019-06-17 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2019-12789 is rated Exploit Available (57.7/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.57%). 1 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). Public exploits are available—assess exposure, apply mitigations, and prioritize patching.

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

Public exploit references (Exploit-DB) for CVE-2019-12789

EDB-ID Source Kind Published Link
— nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2019-12789

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 0.05% 0.57% +0.53%
2 2026-03-02 0.14% 0.05% -0.09%
3 2025-11-21 — 0.14% —

Full EPSS history (11 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2019-12789

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
6.8 3.0 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.0/AV:P/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H 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:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 0.9 5.9 [email protected]
7.2 2.0 HIGH
AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C 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:C)
Complete confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:C)
Complete integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:C)
Complete availability impact.
 3.9 10.0 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2019-12789

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2019-12789

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
actiontec t2200h_firmware t2200h-31.1238l.08 cpe:2.3:o:actiontec:t2200h_firmware:t2200h-31.1238l.08:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2019-12789

URL Tags
http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2019/Jun/10 Exploit Mailing List Third Party Advisory
https://www.actiontec.com/blog/ Third Party Advisory
cvelogic Threat Intelligence