Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
Cisco NFVIS could record the administrator password in clear text during the first required default-password change through the web portal. A logged-in attacker with a valid account could read that password and use it to access the affected system.
Executive priority
Treat as a targeted credential exposure issue, not a broad emergency. Prioritize NFVIS systems that support critical network virtualization operations, have multiple local users, or retain accessible logs from initial setup.
Technical view
The flaw is CWE-532: sensitive information written to log files. It affects Cisco Enterprise NFV Infrastructure Software’s web portal first-login password recovery/default-password-change flow. Only the admin password from that forced first change is described as exposed; later password changes and other accounts are not affected.
Likely exposure
Exposure is limited to organizations running Cisco Enterprise NFV Infrastructure Software with web portal access and local users who can view the relevant logs. The attacker must already have a valid user account, reducing internet-scale risk but raising insider or compromised-account concern.
Exploitation context
The source bundle does not show KEV listing or active exploitation. Exploitation requires authenticated access and the ability to view the clear-text admin password in logs. No unauthenticated or remote code execution behavior is described.
Researcher notes
The bundle does not specify affected versions, patch levels, or log file locations. Avoid assuming broader credential leakage: the described issue is limited to the admin password during the first forced default-password modification.
Mitigation direction
- Review Cisco’s advisory for affected releases and fixed software guidance.
- Restrict NFVIS web portal and log access to trusted administrative users.
- Rotate the NFVIS admin password if first-login logs may have exposed it.
- Review user accounts and remove unnecessary or stale NFVIS access.
- Monitor NFVIS authentication activity for suspicious admin logins.
Validation and detection
- Inventory Cisco Enterprise NFV Infrastructure Software deployments.
- Confirm whether the forced first-login default-password change occurred.
- Check whether relevant logs are retained and who can access them.
- Verify whether the admin password has been changed since the exposed first-login event.
- Confirm remediation status against Cisco’s advisory.
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-532: 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-2019-1953 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
- 6.5 (3.0)
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/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:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N2.83.6Primary CVE scoreVulnerability scoring details
Base CVSS 3.0 score
6.5MediumVector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- 20190807 Cisco Enterprise NFV Infrastructure Software Password Recovery 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.
Insertion of Sensitive Information into Log File
Insertion of Sensitive Information into Log File represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.