Vulnerability Monitor

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CVE-2019-9896

In PuTTY versions before 0.71 on Windows, local attackers could hijack the application by putting a malicious help file in the same directory as the executable.

Security Impact Summary

This vulnerability carries a HIGH severity rating with a CVSS v3.1 score of 7.8, requiring local system access to exploit with relatively low complexity without requiring user interaction requiring only low-level privileges . The vulnerability impacts confidentiality (data exposure), integrity (unauthorized modifications), and availability (service disruption) for affected systems. Impacting 4 products from putty, from microsoft, from opensuse and 1 other, organizations running these solutions should prioritize assessment and patching.

Historical Context

First disclosed in 2019, this vulnerability was reported during a period defined by widespread IoT adoption challenges, mobile security concerns, and the emergence of advanced persistent threat (APT) techniques. Contemporary mitigation strategies focused on secure development practices and third-party component vetting.

Published

2019-03-21T16:01:17.813

Last Modified

2024-11-21T04:52:31.827

Status

Modified

Source

[email protected]

Severity

CVSSv3.1: 7.8 (HIGH)

CVSSv2 Vector

AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

Access Vector: LOCAL
Access Complexity: LOW
Authentication: NONE
Confidentiality Impact: PARTIAL
Integrity Impact: PARTIAL
Availability Impact: PARTIAL

Exploitability Score

3.9

Impact Score

6.4

Weaknesses

Type: Primary
CWE-427

Affected Vendors & Products

Type	Vendor	Product	Version/Range	Vulnerable?
Application	putty	putty	< 0.71	Yes
Operating System	microsoft	windows	-	No
Application	opensuse	backports_sle	15.0	Yes
Operating System	opensuse	leap	15.0	Yes

References

http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2019-04/msg00004.html Mailing List, Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2019-04/msg00020.html Mailing List, Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20190404-0001/ Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/changes.html Release Notes, Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2019-04/msg00004.html Mailing List, Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2019-04/msg00020.html Mailing List, Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20190404-0001/ Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/changes.html Release Notes, Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)

How SecUtils Interprets This CVE

SecUtils normalizes and enriches National Vulnerability Database (NVD) records by standardizing vendor and product identifiers, aggregating vulnerability metadata from both NVD and MITRE sources, and providing structured context for security teams. For putty's affected products, we extract Common Platform Enumeration (CPE) data, Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) classifications, CVSS severity metrics, and reference data to enable rapid vulnerability prioritization and asset correlation. This record contains no exploit code, proof-of-concept instructions, or attack methodologies—only defensive intelligence necessary for patch management, risk assessment, and security operations.