CVE-2019-16057 — Dns-320 Firmware
CRITICALCVE-2019-16057 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.8) OS Command Injection vulnerability in dlink dns-320 firmware. It is in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2022-04-15) and has been used in ransomware campaigns — treat it as actively exploited and patch now. No vendor fix is recorded yet; mitigation options are listed below.
The login_mgr.cgi script in D-Link DNS-320 through 2.05.B10 is vulnerable to remote command injection.
Exploitation Status
Actively exploited in the wild
- Confirmed by CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2022-04-15 — including use in ransomware campaigns. Federal agencies were required to remediate by 2022-05-06.
- CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
- A successful exploit gives an attacker total control of the affected component, not partial access.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA (KEV catalog and SSVC triage) for CVE-2019-16057.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2019-16057 by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). In the shaded patch-first corner (EPSS 50%+, CVSS 7.0+).
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 394,803 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the 50–90% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.
Description
The login_mgr.cgi script in D-Link DNS-320 through 2.05.B10 is vulnerable to remote command injection.
Affected Products
dns-320 firmwaredlinkResearch use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
Detection & mitigation playbook
Vendor / applianceDetect
Inventory every dlink dns-320 firmware deployment and check each version against the affected-products list above.
Remediation status
No patch has shipped for CVE-2019-16057 yet — track the dlink dns-320 firmware advisory for a fixed release and apply the workarounds below in the meantime.
Mitigate without a patch
Stop passing untrusted input into the interpreter or shell: call the affected binary with an argument array rather than a composed command string, reject anything outside a strict allowlist of expected values, and run the component under an account that cannot reach beyond the work it legitimately does. Alongside that, restrict the management interface to trusted networks and apply the vendor's recommended configuration mitigations.
How to detect CVE-2019-16057
A community-maintained Nuclei template exists for this CVE. You can scan for it directly:
nuclei -id cve-2019-16057 -u https://target- Template
- D-Link DNS-320 - Remote Code Execution
- Severity
- critical
- Impact
- Successful exploitation of this vulnerability can lead to unauthorized access, data loss, and potential compromise of the affected device.
- Remediation
- Apply the latest firmware update provided by D-Link to mitigate this vulnerability.
Template by ProjectDiscovery nuclei-templates (DhiyaneshDk), MIT licensed. View the full template. Scan only systems you are authorised to test.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2019-16057 being exploited in your environment?
Detect and block the exploit chain at execution, on systems you cannot patch yet.