Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
CVE-2019-1938 is a critical authentication bypass in Cisco UCS Director and Cisco UCS Director Express for Big Data. A remote unauthenticated attacker could perform administrator-level actions through certain APIs. The source bundle does not specify affected versions or confirmed exploitation.
Executive priority
High priority. This vulnerability could let an unauthenticated remote attacker act as an administrator on affected management systems. Confirm affected Cisco deployments quickly and prioritize any exposed systems.
Technical view
The flaw is improper authentication request handling in the web-based management interface. Crafted HTTP requests to affected systems can bypass authentication and execute arbitrary API actions with administrator privileges. CVSS 3.0 is 9.8, with network attack vector, low complexity, no privileges, and no user interaction.
Likely exposure
Exposure is most concerning where Cisco UCS Director management interfaces or APIs are reachable from untrusted networks. The bundle lists affected versions as unspecified, so asset owners must confirm exposure against Cisco's advisory and local inventories.
Exploitation context
The bundle supports remote unauthenticated exploitation potential but does not show CISA KEV listing or active exploitation evidence. Treat internet-reachable management interfaces as urgent risk because successful exploitation could affect confidentiality, integrity, and availability.
Researcher notes
Evidence is limited to the CVE record and Cisco advisory reference. The source bundle does not provide fixed versions, workaround details, exploit maturity, or proof of active exploitation. Avoid assuming impact beyond affected Cisco UCS Director management APIs.
Mitigation direction
- Review the Cisco advisory for affected releases and vendor remediation guidance.
- Inventory Cisco UCS Director and Express for Big Data deployments.
- Restrict access to management interfaces and APIs to trusted administrative networks.
- Prioritize remediation for any externally reachable management plane.
- Monitor administrative API activity for unexpected unauthenticated or anomalous actions.
Validation and detection
- Confirm whether Cisco UCS Director or Express for Big Data is deployed.
- Compare installed versions against Cisco advisory guidance.
- Identify whether management interfaces are reachable from untrusted networks.
- Review logs for unusual API or administrative activity.
- Verify remediation status after applying vendor guidance.
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-287: Credential and account abuse lookup
Authentication and credential weaknesses can make valid-account abuse and credential telemetry useful review starting points. 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-2019-1938 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
- Critical
- CVSS
- 9.8 (3.0)
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H3.95.9Primary CVE scoreVulnerability scoring details
Base CVSS 3.0 score
9.8CriticalVector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- 20190821 Cisco UCS Director and Cisco UCS Director Express for Big Data API Authentication Bypass VulnerabilityCVE reference · vendor-advisory, x_refsource_CISCO
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 Authentication
Improper Authentication represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.