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CVE-2022-38378· NVD / CVE Program· CNA fortinet

An improper privilege management vulnerability [CWE-269] in Fortinet FortiOS version 7.2.0 and before 7.0.7 and FortiProxy version 7.2.0 thr

An improper privilege management vulnerability [CWE-269] in Fortinet FortiOS version 7.2.0 and before 7.0.7 and FortiProxy version 7.2.0 through 7.2.1 and before 7.0.7 allows an attacker that has access to the admin profile section (System subsection Administrator Users) to modify their own profile and upgrade their privileges to Read Write via CLI or GUI commands.

MediumCVSS 6.0 · v3.1—No exploit No fix recorded
Published
Feb 16, 2023
Updated
Jun 17, 2026
EPSS
0.2% · 14th percentile
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Report tools

JSON

Action score

24

Monitor

Low priority for now.

CVSS
24 / 40 · 6.0 / 10
CISA KEV
0 / 30 · Not listed
EPSS
0 / 30 · 0.2%

CISA SSVC decision

Exploitation
none
Automatable
no
Technical impact
partial

Vulnrichment: CISA's decision-tree inputs.

CNA vs NVD score

NVD
6.0
CNA · fortinet
4.0
2.0 point gap

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L/E:P/RL:X/RC:C

The score given by the assigning authority versus NVD’s independent score. A gap means the severity is contested.

Noroxi analysis

No Noroxi analysis for this record yet

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Affected systems

VendorProduct
fortinetfortiproxy
fortinetfortios

Affected versions

NVD version ranges (for catalog products). Add the product to your stack with a version and matching uses these.

  • fortinet fortios6.0.0 and later · before 7.0.8
  • fortinet fortios7.2.0 and later · before 7.2.1

Versions reported by the vendor

Affected version ranges reported by the assigning authority (fortinet). Independent of NVD's CPE analysis and usually ahead of it.

  • Fortinet FortiOS

    • 7.2.0affected
    • 7.0.0 and later · up to and including 7.0.7affected · semver
    • 6.4.0 and later · up to and including 6.4.11affected · semver
    • 6.2.0 and later · up to and including 6.2.12affected · semver
    • 6.0.0 and later · up to and including 6.0.16affected · semver

  • Fortinet FortiProxy

    • 7.2.0 and later · up to and including 7.2.1affected · semver
    • 7.0.0 and later · up to and including 7.0.7affected · semver
    • 2.0.0 and later · up to and including 2.0.11affected · semver
    • 1.2.0 and later · up to and including 1.2.13affected · semver
    • 1.1.0 and later · up to and including 1.1.6affected · semver

Same product

fortinet: all records

Other highest-scoring records for the same primary product.

  • CVE-2022-40684An authentication bypass using an alternate path or channel [CWE-288] in Fortinet FortiOS version 7.2.0 through 7.2.1 and 7.0.0 through 7.0.KEV
    99Now
  • CVE-2018-13379An Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ("Path Traversal") in Fortinet FortiOS 6.0.0 to 6.0.4, 5.6.3 to 5.6.7 and 5.4KEV
    99Now
  • CVE-2024-55591An Authentication Bypass Using an Alternate Path or Channel vulnerability [CWE-288] affecting FortiOS version 7.0.0 through 7.0.16 and FortiKEV
    97Now
  • CVE-2023-27997A heap-based buffer overflow vulnerability [CWE-122] in FortiOS version 7.2.4 and below, version 7.0.11 and below, version 6.4.12 and below,KEV
    95Now
  • CVE-2024-21762A out-of-bounds write in Fortinet FortiOS versions 7.4.0 through 7.4.2, 7.2.0 through 7.2.6, 7.0.0 through 7.0.13, 6.4.0 through 6.4.14, 6.2KEV
    94Now
  • CVE-2025-59718A improper verification of cryptographic signature vulnerability in Fortinet FortiOS 7.6.0 through 7.6.3, FortiOS 7.4.0 through 7.4.8, FortiKEV
    89Now

Remediation

Which version to upgrade to

Fix versions compiled from the vendor, package registries and Microsoft. Verify the vendor's note before upgrading.

No fix version is recorded for this entry. Check the references for vendor advisories.

Exploit status

No known public exploit

No public exploit has been observed yet. That doesn't mean you're safe, only that the bar is a little higher.

Research context

For pentesters and researchers: attack profile, score disagreement, timeline, patch commits, credits, variant and chain candidates, bug bounty scope. All derived from existing data; no exploit code.

Timeline

From publication to today: proof of concept, Metasploit module, CISA KEV and fix record. Dates are as reported by the sources.

No dated events beyond publication.

EPSS, last 120 days

FIRST EPSS daily score; only changes of 0.01 or more are recorded (step chart).

Patch and commit links

Commit, PR and diff links among the references. A starting point for patch-diffing and variant hunting; fixes, not exploits.

No commit or PR link among the references.

Credits

All researchers

Finders, reporters and analysts named in the CNA record. Click a name for that researcher’s other records.

No credits in the CNA record.

Variant candidates

Same product, same weakness class, within 18 months. If the patch missed the root cause, the sibling bug is here.

No nightly-computed relations.

Chain candidates

An authentication bypass and a privilege-requiring bug in the same product, published close together: combined they may become an unauthenticated path.

—

Bug bounty scope

No known public program.

Source: bounty-targets-data (public HackerOne, Bugcrowd, Intigriti, YesWeHack listings).

Technical details

Attack conditions

  • Someone with local access to the system can trigger it.
  • Administrator privileges are required.
  • No user action is required.
  • No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.

If successful

Confidentiality
high · data can be read
Integrity
high · data or configuration can be modified
Availability
none
Attack vector
Local
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
High
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality impact
High
Integrity impact
High
Availability impact
None

Weakness class (CWE)

CWE-269 · Improper Privilege Management

CVSS vector

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N

nvd-primary

Root cause

To simplify setup, a service account is granted broad, cluster-wide permissions. The principle of least privilege is skipped during installation.

The bug in code

The whole CWE-269 class

A representative example of this vulnerability class. Not the vendor's source code; it shows the faulty pattern and its fix.

Vulnerable

yaml
kind: ClusterRolerules:  - apiGroups: ["*"]    resources: ["*"]    verbs: ["*"]

Fixed

yaml
kind: Rolemetadata:  namespace: lodos-systemrules:  - apiGroups: ["apps"]    resources: ["deployments"]    verbs: ["get", "list", "update"]

Attack context

MITRE CAPEC attack patterns and ATT&CK techniques for this weakness class (CWE). A starting point for detection rules and threat hunting.

Change log

No changes recorded on tracked fields yet. Score, KEV, exploit maturity and fix status changes appear here.

References

Vendor advisories and official records. Exploit/PoC links are deliberately left out.

All records