Threats / Fortinet / CVE-2021-44168
CVE-2021-44168
· EUVD no mirror located
· GCVE no mirror located
Verified 2026-09-19
Fortinet FortiOS vulnerability
Fortinet FortiOS contains an integrity verification flaw in the 'execute restore src-vis' command that permits arbitrary file downloads without validation, enabling code injection and system compromise.
Verdict
Today item — known-exploited.
An unauthenticated or low-privileged attacker can download and execute malicious code on FortiOS systems by exploiting missing integrity checks during file restoration, leading to unauthorized access and control of network security appliances.
CISA KEV Yes · 2021-12-105EPSS 0.00873 (verify live)6Exploit Weaponized · public PoC7CVSS 3.33CISA SSVC Exploitation: active · Automatable: no · Impact: partial4
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
2 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 2021-12-10).
Probability (EPSS)
EPSS 0.00873 — modeled likelihood of exploitation activity.EPSS is a daily-changing model output — open the source for today's value.
Severity / affected
CVSS 3.3 (CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N/E:P/RL:U/RC:C) · Affected: Fortinet, FortiOS. Confirm exact fixed builds in the vendor advisory.CVSS — CNA-assigned (CVE.org), version 3.1, set at disclosure.
Weakness (CWE)
Mapped to CWE-494 Download Without Integrity Check — 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: 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.
Currency of the record
CISA added this to its KEV catalog the same day 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.
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 craft a malicious file and intercept or redirect the restore operation to serve my payload instead of the legitimate update.
Business
The organization's firewall appliance executes attacker-controlled code, compromising the security perimeter and exposing internal networks to breach.
2
Keys to the kingdom — privilege/identity takeover narrative 2
Attacker
I perform a man-in-the-middle attack or DNS hijacking to redirect the FortiOS restore request to a server hosting my backdoor.
Business
Attackers gain persistent administrative access to the security appliance, enabling lateral movement and data exfiltration across protected infrastructure.
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 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.