Is CVE-2019-16098 actively exploited?

No active exploitation of CVE-2019-16098 has been confirmed so far. Continue monitoring, as exploit status can change.

Can CVE-2019-16098 be exploited remotely?

No. CVE-2019-16098 requires local access to exploit.

What is the CVSS score of CVE-2019-16098?

CVE-2019-16098 has a CVSS score of 7.8 (HIGH).

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HIGH

CVE-2019-16098

CWE-125Published: September 11, 2019· Updated: Jun 17, 2026

7.8

CVSS v3.1

Official Description

The driver in Micro-Star MSI Afterburner 4.6.2.15658 (aka RTCore64.sys and RTCore32.sys) allows any authenticated user to read and write to arbitrary memory, I/O ports, and MSRs. This can be exploited for privilege escalation, code execution under high privileges, and information disclosure. These signed drivers can also be used to bypass the Microsoft driver-signing policy to deploy malicious code.

NVD Source

Technical Analysis

CVE-2019-16098 requires local access, meaning attackers must already have a foothold on the target system.

Exploitation requires low privileges, which limits the exposure to scenarios where an attacker has already gained initial access.

A successful exploit results in complete confidentiality breach (data exposure), full integrity compromise (data manipulation), availability disruption (denial of service), with a CVSS base score of 7.8.