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Threats / SonicWall / CVE-2021-20035
CVE-2021-20035 · EUVD no mirror located · GCVE no mirror located Verified 2026-06-22

SonicWall SMA100 Appliances vulnerability

SonicWall SMA100 appliances contain an OS command injection vulnerability in the management interface allowing authenticated remote attackers to execute arbitrary commands.

Verdict

Today item — known-exploited.

A remote authenticated attacker can inject OS commands through the management interface of SonicWall SMA100 appliances, potentially achieving code execution with limited privileges. The vulnerability has been observed in active exploitation.

CISA KEV Yes · 2025-04-163EPSS 0.0389 (verify live)4
01

Is it exploitable?

— the evidence, ranked above the score
Reported exploitation
6 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 2025-04-16).
CISA KEV ↗Confirmed
Probability (EPSS)
EPSS 0.0389 — modeled likelihood of exploitation activity.EPSS is a daily-changing model output — open the source for today's value.
Severity / affected
Affected: SonicWall, SMA100 Appliances. Confirm exact fixed builds in the vendor advisory.
NVD ↗Reported
Weakness (CWE)
Mapped to CWE-78 OS Command Injection — weakness family: Injection.CWE assignment from the public NVD record; the weakness class drives how the flaw is exploited.
NVD ↗Reported
02

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.

03

Why it matters

— the attack path, told twice: adversary, then board
1

Front door — unauthenticated access narrative 1

Attacker
I authenticate to the SMA100 management interface using valid credentials.
Business
Compromised or weak administrative credentials create an initial foothold for attackers.
2

Keys to the kingdom — privilege/identity takeover narrative 2

Attacker
I inject arbitrary OS commands through an input field in the management interface.
Business
The appliance fails to properly sanitize user input, allowing command injection attacks.
3

Lateral reach — past segmentation narrative 3

Attacker
I execute commands with 'nobody' user privileges to gather information or modify system configuration.
Business
Attackers gain code execution capability on security infrastructure, potentially bypassing access controls.
4

Data at risk — exfiltration narrative 4

Attacker
I leverage the execution context to escalate privileges or establish persistent access.
Business
The appliance becomes a pivot point for lateral movement within the network.
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’t

Established (cited)

  • KEV listing (CISA)
  • EPSS probability (FIRST)
  • 6 reported-exploitation source(s)
  • CWE weakness mapping (NVD)
  • Catalogued by sonicwall (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/reporter credit recorded in the public CVE entry — the work behind this find is unattributed.
  • Disclosure & credit2
    Catalogued by sonicwallCNA
    Credited with finding itNo finder named in the public CVE record — the work behind this find is unattributed.