Threats / MikroTik / CVE-2018-14847
CVE-2018-14847
· EUVD no mirror located
· GCVE no mirror located
Verified 2026-09-19
MikroTik RouterOS vulnerability
MikroTik RouterOS through 6.42 contains a directory traversal vulnerability in the WinBox interface allowing unauthenticated remote file read and authenticated file write access.
Verdict
Today item — known-exploited.
A path traversal flaw in RouterOS WinBox enables unauthenticated attackers to read sensitive files and authenticated users to write arbitrary files, creating exposure for configuration theft and system compromise on affected routers.
CISA KEV Yes · 2021-12-014EPSS 0.96087 (verify live)5Exploit Weaponized · public PoC6CVSS 9.1 (CISA)3CISA SSVC Exploitation: active · Automatable: yes · Impact: total3
01
Is it exploitable?
— the evidence, ranked above the scoreExploit available
Fully weaponized — public exploit code is cataloged for this vulnerability.We link the existence of the exploit; we do not host or redistribute payloads.
Reported exploitation
12 independent public reports of in-the-wild exploitation are cataloged.Distinct reporting sources (vendor, incident response, government); open them for the underlying claims.
Exploited in the wild
Listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2021-12-01).
Probability (EPSS)
EPSS 0.96087 — modeled likelihood of exploitation activity.EPSS is a daily-changing model output — open the source for today's value.
Severity / affected
CVSS 9.1 (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N) · Affected: MikroTik, RouterOS. Confirm exact fixed builds in the vendor advisory.CVSS — CISA-assigned via the ADP container (CVE.org), version 3.1; the CNA left no metrics, so CISA's own score is used ahead of NVD.
Weakness (CWE)
Mapped to CWE-22 Path Traversal — weakness family: Path traversal / file.CWE assignment from the public NVD record (may be stale); the weakness class drives how the flaw is exploited.
CISA SSVC (triage disposition)
Exploitation: active · Automatable: yes · Technical Impact: totalCISA'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.
Currency of the record
CISA added this to its KEV catalog 1217 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.
Public exploit available
Public exploit tooling is catalogued for this CVE (a public proof-of-concept / detection template). Catalog entries: Metasploit module. We link the catalog page(s) only — no payload or code is hosted or restated here.Link, never host — the catalog page is the source; basicsecurity.net does not redistribute payloads.
02
Who’s exploiting it?
— attribution turns risk into urgencyAttribution 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.
03
Why it matters
— the attack path, told twice: adversary, then board1
Front door — unauthenticated access narrative 1
Attacker
I probe the WinBox interface with directory traversal payloads to access files outside intended directories without authentication.
Business
Sensitive router configurations, credentials, and system files become accessible to external threat actors.
2
Keys to the kingdom — privilege/identity takeover narrative 2
Attacker
I authenticate to WinBox and exploit the traversal flaw to write malicious files to arbitrary locations on the system.
Business
Attackers gain persistent code execution capability, enabling full router compromise and network infrastructure takeover.
3
Lateral reach — past segmentation narrative 3
Attacker
I leverage read access to extract router credentials and configuration data for lateral movement into the target network.
Business
Compromised router credentials facilitate unauthorized network access and potential breach of connected systems and data.
04
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.
05
Coverage & confidence
— what we know, and what we don’tEstablished (cited)
Coverage gaps — stated, not hidden
Disclosure & credit2
Catalogued by mitreCNA
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
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