Threats / Fortinet / CVE-2018-13379
CVE-2018-13379
· EUVD no mirror located
· GCVE no mirror located
Verified 2026-09-02
Fortinet FortiOS vulnerability
Fortinet FortiOS SSL VPN web portal contains a path traversal vulnerability allowing unauthenticated attackers to download system files via specially crafted HTTP requests.
Verdict
Today item, not a backlog item.
An unauthenticated remote attacker can exploit path traversal in the FortiOS SSL VPN portal to access and exfiltrate sensitive system files, potentially exposing credentials and configuration data used in ransomware campaigns.
CISA KEV Yes · 2021-11-035Ransomware use Flagged5EPSS 0.99999 (verify live)6Exploit Weaponized · public PoC7CVSS 9.13CISA SSVC Exploitation: active · Automatable: yes · 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
1126 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 2021-11-03), flagged for known ransomware use.
Probability (EPSS)
EPSS 0.99999 — 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:N/A:H) · 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-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: 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 883 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, nuclei template. 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 craft HTTP requests with path traversal sequences to bypass directory restrictions on the SSL VPN portal.
Business
Attackers gain unauthorized file system access without authentication, eliminating a critical security boundary.
2
Keys to the kingdom — privilege/identity takeover narrative 2
Attacker
I download sensitive FortiOS system files including configuration and credential material from the compromised portal.
Business
Exfiltrated credentials and system configurations enable lateral movement and persistence within the victim environment.
3
Lateral reach — past segmentation narrative 3
Attacker
I use extracted credentials to establish deeper access to internal systems and deploy ransomware payloads.
Business
The organization faces operational shutdown, data encryption, and extortion demands from coordinated ransomware campaigns.
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
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