CVE-2013-4657
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedSymlink Traversal vulnerability in NETGEAR WNR3500U and WNR3500L due to misconfiguration in the SMB service.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · high confidenceA symlink traversal vulnerability exists in the SMB service of NETGEAR WNR3500U and WNR3500L routers. Attackers can exploit this misconfiguration to access files outside the intended SMB share directory through symbolic links, potentially exposing sensitive system files.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE dataall versionsall versionsCVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Confirm device modelAccess the router web interface or check the device label to verify the exact model number is WNR3500U or WNR3500LAffected if Device is a WNR3500U or WNR3500L router
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Check if SMB service is enabledLog into the router administration panel and look for SMB, file sharing, or USB storage settings under the Advanced or Storage settings sectionAffected if SMB service is turned on in the router configuration
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Identify SMB share configurationIn the SMB/share settings, examine whether any share folders are configured and note their pathsAffected if At least one SMB share is defined and accessible to network users
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Test for symlink traversal vulnerabilityFrom a client on the network, attempt to create or follow a symbolic link within an SMB share that points to a path outside the share directory (such as ../../etc/passwd)Affected if The SMB service allows traversal beyond the defined share boundaries via symlinks
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Check for unexpected file accessAttempt to access router system files (such as /etc/config or similar) through the SMB share using relative path traversalAffected if Files outside the SMB share root become accessible through the exploit
If the device is a WNR3500U or WNR3500L with SMB service enabled and symlink traversal is possible outside configured shares, the environment is affected by this CVE.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataUpdate to latest firmware if available, disable SMB service if not required, or implement proper SMB configuration to prevent symlink traversal outside designated share paths.
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $3,168.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2013-4657 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2013-4657 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.
- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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