CVE-2019-5061 [Medium] | Authentication Bypass in Hostapd

An exploitable denial-of-service vulnerability exists in the hostapd 2.6, where an attacker could trigger AP to send IAPP location updates for stations, before the required authentication process has completed. This could lead to different denial of service scenarios, either by causing CAM table attacks, or by leading to traffic flapping if faking already existing clients in other nearby Aps of the same wireless infrastructure. An attacker can forge Authentication and Association Request packets to trigger this vulnerability.

#	Date	Old EPSS score	New EPSS score	Delta (New - Old)
1	2026-06-15	0.30%	0.92%	+0.62%
2	2025-11-21	0.19%	0.30%	+0.12%
3	2025-11-18	—	0.19%	—

Date

Old EPSS score

New EPSS score

Delta (New - Old)

2026-06-15

0.30%

0.92%

+0.62%

2025-11-21

0.19%

0.30%

+0.12%

2025-11-18

—

0.19%

—

Base score	Version	Severity	Vector	Exploitability	Impact	Score source
6.5	3.1	MEDIUM	`CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H` Click to expand Attack vector (AV:A) Attacker has to be nearby on the network—same office, same link, that vibe—not the whole wide internet. 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:N) Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way. Integrity (I:N) Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged. Availability (A:H) Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.	2.8	3.6	[email protected]
7.4	3.0	HIGH	`CVSS:3.0/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H` Click to expand Attack vector (AV:A) Attacker has to be nearby on the network—same office, same link, that vibe—not the whole wide internet. 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:C) Breaking this can reach past the original component and bite other resources—bigger blast radius. Confidentiality (C:N) Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way. Integrity (I:N) Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged. Availability (A:H) Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.	2.8	4.0	[email protected]
3.3	2.0	LOW	`AV:A/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P` Click to expand Access vector (AV:A) Requires access to an adjacent network segment. Access complexity (AC:L) Exploitation conditions are straightforward and predictable. Authentication (AU:N) No authentication is required. Confidentiality impact (C:N) No confidentiality impact. Integrity impact (I:N) No integrity impact. Availability impact (A:P) Partial availability impact.	6.5	2.9	[email protected]

Base score

Version

Severity

Vector

Exploitability

Impact

Score source

6.5

3.1

MEDIUM

CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H Click to expand

Attack vector (AV:A): Attacker has to be nearby on the network—same office, same link, that vibe—not the whole wide internet.
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:N): Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N): Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H): Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.

2.8

3.6

[email protected]

7.4

3.0

HIGH

CVSS:3.0/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H Click to expand

Attack vector (AV:A): Attacker has to be nearby on the network—same office, same link, that vibe—not the whole wide internet.
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:C): Breaking this can reach past the original component and bite other resources—bigger blast radius.
Confidentiality (C:N): Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N): Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H): Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.

2.8

4.0

[email protected]

3.3

2.0

LOW

AV:A/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P Click to expand

Access vector (AV:A): Requires access to an adjacent network segment.
Access complexity (AC:L): Exploitation conditions are straightforward and predictable.
Authentication (AU:N): No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:N): No confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:N): No integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:P): Partial availability impact.

6.5

2.9

[email protected]

OS Trackers for CVE-2019-5061

vendor	priority	summary	link
`alpine`	medium	CVE-2019-5061: 1 source package rows (hostapd); 5 state rows across 5 repos (3.19-main, 3.20-main, 3.21-main, 3.22-main, edge-main); fixed 0, open 5.	https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2019-5061
`debian`	unimportant	CVE-2019-5061 unimportant priority: Debian including 1 source packages (wpa), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5.	https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2019-5061
`ubuntu`	low	CVE-2019-5061 low priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (wpa), 18 status rows across 18 suites (bionic, disco, eoan, focal, groovy, hirsute, impish, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): released 10, needs-triage 5, ignored 3.	https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2019-5061

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2019-5061

Vendor	Product	Version	Raw CPE
w1.fi	hostapd	2.6	cpe:2.3:a:w1.fi:hostapd:2.6:::::::*

References for CVE-2019-5061

URL	Tags
https://talosintelligence.com/vulnerability_reports/TALOS-2019-0849	Third Party Advisory

URL

CVE-2019-5061

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2019-5061

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2019-5061

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2019-5061

OS Trackers for CVE-2019-5061

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2019-5061

References for CVE-2019-5061