CVE-2019-5526

Exp

VMware Workstation (15.x before 15.1.0) contains a DLL hijacking issue because some DLL files are improperly loaded by the application. Successful exploitation of this issue may allow attackers with normal user privileges to escalate their privileges to administrator on a windows host where Workstation is installed.

Published: 2019-05-15 Last update: 2026-06-16 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2019-5526 is rated High Exploit Risk (79.1/100): CVSS High severity, with high exploitation likelihood (EPSS 9.03%, 95th percentile). Core evidence: 1 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). Mandatory action: 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-2019-5526

EDB-ID Source Kind Published Link
46851 exploit_db edb 2019-05-16 Exploit-DB ↗

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2019-5526

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 2026-06-23 9.21% 9.03% -0.18%
2 2026-06-15 6.83% 9.21% +2.38%
3 2026-04-15 6.83%

Full EPSS history (40 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2019-5526

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.8 3.0 HIGH
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
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: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.
1.8 5.9 [email protected]
9.3 2.0 HIGH
AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C 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:C)
Complete confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:C)
Complete integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:C)
Complete availability impact.
8.6 10.0 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2019-5526

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2019-5526

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
vmware workstation >= 15.0.0, < 15.1.0 cpe:2.3:a:vmware:workstation:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2019-5526

cvelogic Threat Intelligence