Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
ClamAV before 0.101.2 can crash or become unavailable when it scans certain Windows executable or DLL files packed with Aspack. The business risk is interruption of antivirus scanning on mail, upload, file-sharing, or malware-analysis systems that rely on vulnerable ClamAV versions.
Executive priority
High priority for organizations depending on ClamAV for inbound-file or email scanning. The issue affects availability, not confidentiality or integrity, but scanner outages can weaken malware defenses and disrupt operations.
Technical view
The issue is an out-of-bounds heap read in ClamAV PE-file scanning caused by inadequate bounds checking. The CVSS 3.1 score is 7.5 with network attack vector, no privileges, no user interaction, and high availability impact only.
Likely exposure
Exposure is most likely where vulnerable ClamAV scans untrusted PE files, including email attachments, web uploads, file shares, endpoint gateways, CI artifact scanning, or malware intake pipelines.
Exploitation context
The source bundle does not show CISA KEV listing or cited evidence of active exploitation. Treat it as a plausible remote denial-of-service risk when attackers can submit files for scanning.
Researcher notes
CWE-20 is listed, and the described vulnerable parser path is PE scanning of Aspack-packed Windows executables or DLLs. The affected product data is broad, so confirm exact deployed package lineage and vendor backport status locally.
Mitigation direction
- Upgrade ClamAV to 0.101.2 or later, or a vendor-supported patched release.
- Prioritize scanners handling untrusted email attachments, uploads, file shares, or malware samples.
- Check ClamAV and OS package vendor guidance for supported backported fixes.
- Use service supervision and restart controls to limit scanning downtime.
Validation and detection
- Inventory ClamAV versions across servers, containers, appliances, and security pipelines.
- Confirm scanners processing untrusted PE files are not running versions before 0.101.2.
- Review ClamAV logs for crashes or failures while scanning PE, EXE, or DLL files.
- Verify updated systems continue scanning representative benign PE files successfully.
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-20: 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 lookupCVE-2019-1789 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
- High
- CVSS
- 7.5 (3.1)
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
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:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H3.93.6Primary CVE scoreVulnerability scoring details
Base CVSS 3.1 score
7.5HighVector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- https://blog.clamav.net/2019/03/clamav-01012-and-01003-patches-have.htmlCVE reference · x_refsource_MISC
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.
Improper Input Validation
Improper Input Validation represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.