NVD / CVE Program· CNA fortinet

CVE-2023-44251: UNSUPPORTED WHEN ASSIGNED A improper limitation of a pathname to a restricted directory ('path traversal') vulnerability [CWE-22] in…

HighCVSS 8.8 · v3.1—No exploit No fix recorded

Noroxi assessment

Priority: Monitor (action score 35/100)

The sources we track (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, Metasploit, Nuclei, GitHub) show no public exploit code or exploitation in the wild.
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days: 0.84% (FIRST EPSS); higher than 58.4% of all records.
Anyone who can reach it over the internet can trigger it. A low-privileged account is enough. No user action is required. No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.
According to the record, no fixed version is available yet.
Mentioned 1 time in Turkish national cyber security advisories (siberguvenlik.gov.tr).

Low priority for now. Update when a fix is released; follow the vendor's advisory.

Generated automatically from the record's data: CVSS (NVD and CNA), CISA KEV and SSVC, FIRST EPSS, exploit sources, fixed versions. How we calculate it

Primary sources: NVD · CVE.org · FIRST EPSS

** UNSUPPORTED WHEN ASSIGNED **A improper limitation of a pathname to a restricted directory ('path traversal') vulnerability [CWE-22] in Fortinet FortiWAN version 5.2.0 through 5.2.1 and version 5.1.1. through 5.1.2 may allow an authenticated attacker to read and delete arbitrary file of the system via crafted HTTP or HTTPs requests.

Path traversal

BDU:2023-08822

Published: Dec 13, 2023
Updated: Jun 17, 2026
EPSS: 0.8% · 58th percentile
CWE: CWE-22

Report tools

JSON

Action score

Monitor

Low priority for now.

CVSS: 35 / 40 · 8.8 / 10
CISA KEV: 0 / 30 · Not listed
EPSS: 0 / 30 · 0.8%

CNA vs NVD score

NVD: 8.8
CNA · fortinet: 8.1; 0.7 point gap

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

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

Get told when this record changes

Not in KEV: no record of exploitation in the wild
No public exploit code on record
No fixed version yet

If any of these changes, we'll tell you in the daily email digest.

Is your version affected? Check it

Noroxi analysis

What does it mean in your environment?

The assessment above is generated automatically from the record's data; it doesn't know your environment. Our team verifies on your systems whether this vulnerability is actually exploitable and which mitigation is enough.

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Affected systems

Is your version affected?

Pick the product and type the version you run. It's compared with this record's version ranges in your browser; the version isn't sent anywhere.

Vendor	Product	CPE
fortinet	fortiwan	cpe:2.3:a:fortinet:fortiwan

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 FortiWAN
- 5.2.0 and later · up to and including 5.2.1affected · semver
- 5.1.1 and later · up to and including 5.1.2affected · semver

Affected versions · NVD (4)

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

fortinet fortiwan5.1.1
fortinet fortiwan5.1.2
fortinet fortiwan5.2.0
fortinet fortiwan5.2.1

Same product

fortinet: all records

Other highest-scoring records for the same primary product.

CVE-2021-26102A relative path traversal vulnerability (CWE-23) in FortiWAN version 4.5.7 and below, 4.4 all versions may allow a remote non-authenticated…
42Plan
CVE-2021-26112Multiple stack-based buffer overflow vulnerabilities [CWE-121] both in network daemons and in the command line interpreter of FortiWAN…
40Plan
CVE-2021-26114Multiple improper neutralization of special elements used in an SQL command vulnerabilities in FortiWAN before 4.5.9 may allow an…
39Monitor

Published before and after this one in the same product

← EarlierCVE-2021-32585Apr 6, 2022 · An improper neutralization of input during web page generation vulnerability [CWE-79] in FortiWAN before 4.5.9 may allow an attacker to…
24Monitor
← EarlierCVE-2022-33869Feb 16, 2023 · An improper neutralization of special elements used in an OS command vulnerability [CWE-78] in the management interface of FortiWAN 4.0.0…
35Monitor
Later →CVE-2023-44252Dec 13, 2023 · ** UNSUPPORTED WHEN ASSIGNED **An improper authentication vulnerability [CWE-287] in Fortinet FortiWAN version 5.2.0 through 5.2.1 and…
35Monitor

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.

Chain candidates

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

CVE-2023-442520 days apart** UNSUPPORTED WHEN ASSIGNED **An improper authentication vulnerability [CWE-287] in Fortinet FortiWAN version 5.2.0 through 5.2.1 and…
35Monitor

National notice (Türkiye Cybersecurity Directorate / USOM)

Official security notices citing this record; remediation advice is on the agency's page.

TR-23-0697 · Dec 13, 2023(Fortinet Güvenlik Bildirimi)

All national notices →

Not on record for this CVE: EPSS history · patch commit or PR link · researcher credit · public bounty program.

Technical details

Attack conditions

Anyone who can reach it over the internet can trigger it.
A low-privileged account is enough.
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: high · the service can be disrupted

Attack vector: Network
Attack complexity: Low
Privileges required: Low
User interaction: None
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality impact: High
Integrity impact: High
Availability impact: High

Weakness class (CWE)

CWE-22 · Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal')

CVSS vector

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

nvd-primary

Root cause

A user-supplied file name is joined with the allowed directory, but the result is never checked to confirm it is still inside that directory.

The bug in code

The whole CWE-22 class

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

Vulnerable

1const file = path.join(ROOT, req.query.name);
2res.sendFile(file);

Fixed

1const file = path.resolve(ROOT, req.query.name);
2if (!file.startsWith(ROOT + path.sep)) {
3  return res.sendStatus(400);
4}
5res.sendFile(file);

Attack context

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

Attack patterns (CAPEC)

ATT&CK techniques

—

Change log (0)

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

References

fortiguard.com/psirt/FG-IR-23-265

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

All records

CVE-2023-44251: ** UNSUPPORTED WHEN ASSIGNED **A improper limitation of a pathname to a restricted directory ('path traversal') vulnerability [CWE-22] in…