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Telegram Desktop CVE-2018-17613

CRITICAL
Insufficiently Protected Credentials (CWE-522)
2018-09-28 cve@mitre.org
9.8
CVSS 3.0 · NVD
View

Vulnerability Assessment

Weakness
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A06:2025 - Insecure Design
ASVS 5.0
V6 - Authentication Credential protection in transit/storage
Impact

CVSS score of 9.8 (CRITICAL). Attack characteristics: network attack vector, low complexity, no privileges required, no user interaction not required.

Exploit ScenarioDerived

A remote attacker could obtain user credentials due to weak protection mechanisms by sending crafted requests to the affected application. No authentication is required to exploit this vulnerability.

Act Now Prioritize within 24-48h. Why: CRITICAL severity.
No patch listed yet 1.6% exploitation probability (EPSS)

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AnalysisAI

Telegram Desktop (aka tdesktop) 1.3.16 alpha, when "Use proxy" is enabled, sends credentials and application data in cleartext over the SOCKS5 protocol. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.

RemediationAI

No vendor patch is available at time of analysis. Monitor vendor advisories for updates. Hash passwords with strong algorithms (bcrypt, argon2), encrypt credentials in transit and at rest, never log credentials.

Affects your stack

Find out whether the stacks and servers you run are on an affected version.

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Technical ContextAI · show details

This vulnerability is classified as Insufficiently Protected Credentials (CWE-522), which allows attackers to obtain user credentials due to weak protection mechanisms. Telegram Desktop (aka tdesktop) 1.3.16 alpha, when "Use proxy" is enabled, sends credentials and application data in cleartext over the SOCKS5 protocol. Affected products include: Telegram Telegram Desktop.

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  • Exploit and PoC references, threat intelligence from 22 sources

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Severity by source

NVD PRIMARY 9.8 CRITICAL
AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Primary rating from NVD · only source for this CVE.

CVSS VectorNVD

Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
None
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

DescriptionNVD

Telegram Desktop (aka tdesktop) 1.3.16 alpha, when "Use proxy" is enabled, sends credentials and application data in cleartext over the SOCKS5 protocol.

Threat Intelligence Overview

EPSS Score
1.6%
Top 27% exploitable
Data Quality
2 sources
Confidence: Low

How this decision was reached

The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.

SignalValue
Severity CRITICAL
CISA KEV No
Public POC No
EPSS 1.6%
Patch available No
Active threat No
Deciding rule
CRITICAL severity
What every action level means
Emergency Immediate action required. Criteria: CRITICAL + in CISA KEV (actively exploited) without patch, OR CRITICAL + EPSS > 30% without patch, OR CRITICAL + active threat signals without patch.
Act Now Prioritize within 24-48h. Criteria: in KEV with patch available, OR CRITICAL + public POC, OR HIGH + EPSS > 10%, OR CRITICAL + active threat, OR any CRITICAL severity.
This Week Schedule remediation this week. Criteria: HIGH severity (CVSS 7.0-8.9). Patch within normal change window.
This Month Plan within 30 days. Criteria: MEDIUM severity (CVSS 4.0-6.9), lower exploitation probability. Include in regular patch cycle.
Monitor Track and reassess. Criteria: LOW severity (CVSS 0.1-3.9), minimal exploitation risk. No immediate action needed.

SSVC AssessmentENISA

SSVC Decision· derived
Scheduled
Exploitation· derived
None
System Exposure· derived
Open
Automatable· derived
Yes
Human Impact· derived
Medium

Priority Score

51
Low Medium High Critical
KEV: 0
EPSS: +2
CVSS: +49
PoC: 0
Weaponized: 0
Threat intel: 0
Gov advisory: 0

Attack Technique

Information disclosure occurs when an application unintentionally exposes sensitive data that aids attackers in reconnaissance or directly compromises security.

Affected Products (CPE)NVD

cpe:2.3:a:telegram:telegram_desktop:1.3.16:alpha:*:*:*:*:*:*
CVE-2019-10044 HIGH POC
8.8 Mar 25

Telegram Desktop before 1.5.12 on Windows, and the Telegram applications for Android, iOS, and Linux, is vulnerable to a

CVE-2026-107181 HIGH POC
8.6 Oct 07

One-click account takeover in Telegram Desktop before 7.2.9, where the Core::Sandbox inter-process communication layer f

CVE-2026-94488 HIGH POC
8.3 Sep 21

Telegram Desktop before 6.9.4 fails to escape inline-keyboard button text when a chat is exported to HTML, so attacker-c

CVE-2021-47793 HIGH POC
7.5 Jan 16

Telegram Desktop versions up to 2.9.2 is affected by allocation of resources without limits or throttling (CVSS 7.5).

CVE-2018-17231 HIGH POC
7.5 Sep 19

Telegram Desktop (aka tdesktop) 1.3.14 might allow attackers to cause a denial of service (assertion failure and applica

CVE-2018-17780 MEDIUM POC
6.5 Sep 29

Telegram Desktop (aka tdesktop) 1.3.14, and Telegram 3.3.0.0 WP8.1 on Windows, leaks end-user public and private IP addr

CVE-2020-17448 HIGH
7.8 Aug 11

Telegram Desktop through 2.1.13 allows a spoofed file type to bypass the Dangerous File Type Execution protection mechan

CVE-2020-12474 MEDIUM
6.5 May 01

Telegram Desktop through 2.0.1, Telegram through 6.0.1 for Android, and Telegram through 6.0.1 for iOS allow an IDN Homo

CVE-2016-10351 MEDIUM
5.5 May 01

Telegram Desktop 0.10.19 uses 0755 permissions for $HOME/.TelegramDesktop, which allows local users to obtain sensitive

CVE-2021-36769 MEDIUM
5.3 Jul 17

A reordering issue exists in Telegram before 7.8.1 for Android, Telegram before 7.8.3 for iOS, and Telegram Desktop befo

CVE-2020-25824 LOW
2.4 Oct 14

Telegram Desktop through 2.4.3 does not require passcode entry upon pushing the Export key within the Export Telegram Da

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