Threats / Fortinet / CVE-2018-13383

CVE-2018-13383 · EUVD no mirror located · GCVE no mirror located Verified 2026-09-19

Fortinet FortiOS and FortiProxy vulnerability

A heap buffer overflow in FortiOS and FortiProxy SSL VPN web service allows remote attackers to cause denial of service by terminating the service for authenticated users.

Verdict

Today item, not a backlog item.

This vulnerability enables unauthenticated remote denial of service against SSL VPN infrastructure. The heap overflow permits memory corruption that crashes the VPN service, disrupting legitimate user sessions and potentially enabling lateral movement or persistence in compromised environments.

CISA KEV Yes · 2022-01-10⁵Ransomware use Flagged⁵EPSS 0.33647 (verify live)⁶CVSS 4.3³CISA SSVC Exploitation: active · Automatable: no · Impact: partial⁴

Is it exploitable?

— the evidence, ranked above the score

Reported exploitation

2 independent public reports of in-the-wild exploitation are cataloged.Distinct reporting sources (vendor, incident response, government); open them for the underlying claims.

ncsc.gov.uk ↗cisa.gov ↗Confirmed

Exploited in the wild

Listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2022-01-10), flagged for known ransomware use.

CISA KEV ↗Confirmed

Probability (EPSS)

EPSS 0.33647 — modeled likelihood of exploitation activity.EPSS is a daily-changing model output — open the source for today's value.

FIRST EPSS ↗High

Severity / affected

CVSS 4.3 (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L) · Affected: Fortinet, FortiOS and FortiProxy. Confirm exact fixed builds in the vendor advisory.CVSS — CNA-assigned (CVE.org), version 3.1, set at disclosure.

CVE.org ↗Reported

Weakness (CWE)

Mapped to CWE-787 Out-of-bounds Write — weakness family: Memory safety.CWE assignment from the public NVD record (may be stale); the weakness class drives how the flaw is exploited.

NVD ↗Reported

CISA SSVC (triage disposition)

Exploitation: active · Automatable: no · Technical Impact: partialCISA's own stakeholder-specific triage inputs, published in the CVE record (CISA Coordinator role). NOTE: this is CISA's three decision points; the final Act/Attend/Track decision also requires a Mission & Well-being input not published here, so no overall decision is asserted.

CISA-ADP ↗Reported

Currency of the record

CISA added this to its KEV catalog 957 days after the CVE record was published.KEV lag = CISA-KEV dateAdded − CVE.org datePublished; a floor on how long the known-exploited flaw sat in the public record before the federal catalog listed it. Severity/weakness here is CNA- or CISA-assigned (current at disclosure), independent of NVD's analysis backlog.

CISA KEV ↗CVE.org ↗Reported

WeaknessCWE-787 · Out-of-bounds WriteMemory safety

Who’s exploiting it?

— attribution turns risk into urgency

Attribution not established

No confirmed (advisory-backed) threat-actor attribution is established for this record. Absence of a named actor is not absence of compromise — see Coverage & confidence.

Why it matters

— the attack path, told twice: adversary, then board

Front door — unauthenticated access narrative 1

Attacker

I craft a malicious SSL VPN request that triggers a heap buffer overflow in the web service.

Business

The SSL VPN service crashes, disconnecting all authenticated users and blocking remote access to corporate resources.

Keys to the kingdom — privilege/identity takeover narrative 2

Attacker

I repeatedly trigger the overflow to maintain persistent denial of service against the VPN gateway.

Business

Sustained unavailability of remote access infrastructure prevents employees from working and disrupts business continuity.

What to do

— defensible action

Remediate per the vendor advisory — confirm the fixed build for your version and verify exposure.¹

Say it to the boardA vulnerability with this evidence profile is a defensible budget line, not a backlog ticket — fund the change against the proof above.

Coverage & confidence

— what we know, and what we don’t

Established (cited)

KEV listing (CISA)

Ransomware-use flag (CISA)

EPSS probability (FIRST)

2 reported-exploitation source(s)

CVSS 4.3 — CNA-assigned (CVE.org)

CISA SSVC triage disposition (CVE.org ADP)

CWE weakness mapping (NVD feed — CNA left none)

Catalogued by fortinet (CNA)

Coverage gaps — stated, not hidden

No EUVD / GCVE mirror in feed — single-authority dependency for the identifier.

EPSS & exposure are time-varying; verify live at the source.

Threat-actor attribution not established from feed data — absence of a name is not absence of compromise.

No finder is named in the public CVE record or the scanned vendor advisory — attribution scoped to the sources checked.

Disclosure & credit²

Catalogued by fortinetCNA

Credited with finding itNo finder is named in the public CVE record or the scanned vendor advisory — attribution scoped to the sources checked.

Found an error? Propose a correction.

A correction is a cited counter-claim — it must cite a source, gets reviewed by a second human, and is never auto-applied. See the correction convention and our identity npub1j7gt9ky7sfcrjn8jjee6693dkzvk4rahs0fk2suu7968dfns62zs3mqm3y.

With JavaScript off: publish a signed kind 1111 Nostr event tagging ["r", "https://basicsecurity.net/threat/cve-2018-13383.html"], ["v", "sha256:1e0bece7989069ab59e32eb8730455cb80a3a376916ca1c8cd8f2032d53db269"] (the record version), plus ["src", "<your source URL>"] and ["t", "correction"], per the correction convention. Our identity: npub1j7gt9ky7sfcrjn8jjee6693dkzvk4rahs0fk2suu7968dfns62zs3mqm3y. Cite-or-die: an event with no src is a coverage finding, not a proposal.