Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
This vulnerability means certain Medtronic programmers store a shared product credential in a form that can be recovered. An attacker would need physical access and the conditions are difficult, but successful access could expose sensitive credential information. The cited sources do not support active exploitation.
Executive priority
Treat this as a moderate medical-device exposure issue. It does not show active exploitation in the provided sources, but it involves recoverable credentials on clinical programming equipment and should be handled through biomedical asset governance and physical security controls.
Technical view
CVE-2018-5446 is a CWE-257 recoverable password storage issue affecting all listed versions of Medtronic 2090 CareLink Programmer and 29901 Encore Programmer. CVSS 3.1 is 4.9 with physical attack vector, high complexity, no privileges, no user interaction, changed scope, and high confidentiality impact only.
Likely exposure
Exposure is most likely in healthcare environments that own or service Medtronic 2090 CareLink or 29901 Encore programmers. Risk depends heavily on physical access controls around these devices and whether local handling procedures account for recoverable stored credentials.
Exploitation context
The source bundle marks KEV as false and provides no cited evidence of active exploitation. The CVSS vector indicates physical access and high attack complexity, so this is not presented as a remote mass-exploitation issue.
Researcher notes
Evidence is limited to public CVE, Medtronic, and CISA advisory references. The issue is credential recoverability rather than code execution. Avoid assuming network reachability, exploit availability, or a universal software fix without confirming current vendor guidance.
Mitigation direction
- Inventory Medtronic 2090 CareLink and 29901 Encore programmers in clinical and service environments.
- Restrict physical access to programmers to authorized clinical, biomedical, and service personnel.
- Review Medtronic and CISA advisories for vendor-approved handling, update, or compensating guidance.
- Include these programmers in medical device asset risk reviews and access-control procedures.
Validation and detection
- Confirm whether any 2090 CareLink or 29901 Encore programmers are present in the environment.
- Verify physical access controls for storage, use, transport, and maintenance locations.
- Check vendor and CISA advisory status before assuming a patch or replacement path exists.
- Document compensating controls and ownership for each identified device.
Public sources used
Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.
Conservative CVE-to-ATT&CK context
These mappings and lookup hints may be relevant to the vulnerability behavior, CWE, affected product, or exposure path. Glexia-inferred context is not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, CWE, or CVE Program mapping.
ATT&CK lookup starting points
Use these exact CWE pages and searches to review the Glexia ATT&CK library from this CVE's weakness and description context.
CWE-257: Exact CWE lookup
Use the exact CWE identifier as the starting point before reviewing related ATT&CK behavior. Open the exact CWE lookup page first, then review the ATT&CK searches from that MITRE weakness context. This is a Glexia lookup hint, not an official ATT&CK mapping.
Open ATT&CK lookupCredential and access behavior lookup
The CVE wording references authentication or credential exposure, so valid-account and credential-access review may help. This is a Glexia inferred lookup path, not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, or CVE Program mapping.
Open ATT&CK lookupCVE-2018-5446 mapping review
Open the CVE-to-ATT&CK bridge for reviewed, inferred, or future official mappings tied to this CVE.
Open ATT&CK lookup- Severity
- Medium
- CVSS
- 4.9 (3.1)
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:P/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:N/A:N
CNA and ADP enrichment extracted from CVE v5
These fields come from the CVE record and ADP containers, not from Glexia's Take. They preserve time-varying source decisions such as CISA SSVC, KEV status, CVSS metrics, and provider references.
CVSS vector scores
1 official scoreWe collect every scored CVSS vector available in the official CNA and ADP containers. When more than one version is present, the table keeps the source vectors side by side instead of collapsing them into the highest score.
CVSS:3.1/AV:P/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:N/A:N0.54Primary CVE scoreVulnerability scoring details
Base CVSS 3.1 score
4.9MediumVector: CVSS:3.1/AV:P/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:N/A:N
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- https://global.medtronic.com/xg-en/product-security/security-bulletins/carelink-2090-29901.htmlCVE reference
- https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/ics-medical-advisories/icsma-18-058-01CVE reference
- https://ics-cert.us-cert.gov/advisories/ICSMA-18-058-01CVE reference · x_refsource_MISC, x_transferred
Products and packages named in the record
CWE details
CWE links open Glexia weakness intelligence pages with official CWE context, developer remediation guidance, and related CVE mappings.
Storing Passwords in a Recoverable Format
Storing Passwords in a Recoverable Format represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.