CVE-2019-18426

Exp

A vulnerability in WhatsApp Desktop versions prior to 0.3.9309 when paired with WhatsApp for iPhone versions prior to 2.20.10 allows cross-site scripting and local file reading. Exploiting the vulnerability requires the victim to click a link preview from a specially crafted text message.

Published: 2020-01-21 Last update: 2025-10-24 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Analyzed，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2019-18426 is rated Critical Active Threat (97.2/100): CVSS High severity, with high exploitation likelihood (EPSS 61.00%, 98th percentile). CISA KEV confirms active exploitation (added 2022-05-23) affecting Meta Platforms / WhatsApp. cross-site scripting (CWE-79) Unauthenticated remote administrative access may be possible. EPSS rose +5.74% over the last day, indicating growing attacker interest. The CISA remediation deadline has passed—treat as an emergency patch priority.

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

CISA KEV Record for CVE-2019-18426

Name: WhatsApp Cross-Site Scripting Vulnerability · CISA KEV detail

Exploit added: 2022-05-23

Action due: 2022-06-13

Required action: Apply updates per vendor instructions.

Public exploit references (Exploit-DB) for CVE-2019-18426

EDB-ID Source Kind Published Link
48295 exploit_db edb 2020-04-06 Exploit-DB ↗
— nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2019-18426

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 2026-05-05 55.27% 61.00% +5.74%
2 2026-01-31 53.28% 55.27% +1.98%
3 2026-01-09 — 53.28% —

Full EPSS history (32 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2019-18426

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
8.2 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:L/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
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:R)
A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
Scope (S:C)
Breaking this can reach past the original component and bite other resources—bigger blast radius.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:L)
Attackers could change some data, but it’s limited—not everything goes.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 2.8 4.7 [email protected]
8.2 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:L/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
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:R)
A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
Scope (S:C)
Breaking this can reach past the original component and bite other resources—bigger blast radius.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:L)
Attackers could change some data, but it’s limited—not everything goes.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 2.8 4.7 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0
5.8 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:N Click to expand
Access vector (AV:N)
Can be exploited remotely over network reachability.
Access complexity (AC:M)
Exploitation needs some favorable conditions, but not exceptional ones.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:P)
Partial confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:P)
Partial integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:N)
No availability impact.
 8.6 4.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2019-18426

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2019-18426

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
whatsapp whatsapp < 0.3.9309 cpe:2.3:a:whatsapp:whatsapp:*:*:*:*:desktop:*:*:*
whatsapp whatsapp < 2.20.10 cpe:2.3:a:whatsapp:whatsapp:*:*:*:*:*:iphone_os:*:*

References for CVE-2019-18426

cvelogic Threat Intelligence