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CVE-2025-61624 is a path traversal vulnerability categorized under CWE-22 that impacts multiple Fortinet product lines including FortiOS, FortiPAM, FortiProxy, and FortiSwitchManager.
The vulnerability resides directly within the command-line interface (CLI) interpreter of the affected appliances where administrative commands process file path parameters.
When an authenticated user with an administrator profile and read-write permissions executes specific CLI routines, the application fails to properly sanitize user-supplied path inputs.
Specifically, directory traversal control sequences such as dot-dot-slash (../) are not sufficiently restricted or filtered before being passed to underlying operating system file functions.
This architectural oversight allows an authenticated privileged user to escape the intended restricted directory boundaries and interact directly with unauthorized areas of the file system.
Consequently, an attacker possessing the necessary administrative credentials can manipulate file paths to write arbitrary data or delete critical system files depending on the invoked command vector.
While the vulnerability requires pre-existing administrative privileges with read-write capabilities, it significantly escalates risk by enabling unauthorized file manipulation that can compromise system integrity.
The attack mechanism typically involves establishing an administrative CLI session via secure shell, telnet, or the web console terminal and issuing maliciously crafted configuration or maintenance commands.
As the internal parser evaluates the file paths, the lack of robust canonicalization allows path traversal characters to resolve to sensitive system directories outside the intended scope.
Mitigating this flaw requires implementing strict path canonicalization checks, ensuring all file-handling CLI functions validate inputs against a hardcoded whitelist of safe directories.
Fortinet addressed this issue by releasing firmware updates that enforce proper input validation, path normalization, and boundary restrictions across all vulnerable product branches.
DailyCVE Form:
Platform: Fortinet FortiOS
Version: Multiple versions affected
Vulnerability: Path Traversal CWE-22
Severity: Medium
date: April 14 2026
Prediction: Already patched today
What Undercode Say:
This security flaw demonstrates that administrative interfaces must never implicitly trust user-supplied paths, as compromised or malicious admin accounts can leverage CLI parsing flaws to alter underlying system files.
Exploit: (Educational Purposes!)
Conceptual demonstration of passing traversal strings via administrative CLI execute file-manager delete "../../../config/sensitive_system_file"
Protection: from this CVE
Upgrade affected devices to secure patched firmware releases execute upgrade-firmware FortiOS 7.6.5
Impact:
- Unauthorized arbitrary file deletion - Malicious arbitrary file creation - Compromise of system file integrity
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Sources:
Reported By: www.cve.org
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