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PfsenseApplication · Netgate

CVE-2014-4691

MEDIUM · 6.8 CVSS v2.0 Published 2014-07-02
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 2.1.3 or later.
See remediation →
77/100
Remediation priority · High
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

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 · unedited
Session fixation vulnerability in pfSense before 2.1.4 allows remote attackers to hijack web sessions via a firewall login cookie.

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 confidence

Session fixation vulnerability in pfSense's web authentication allows attackers to pre-set or fix a user's session cookie before authentication. Once the user logs in, the attacker can hijack the authenticated session using the fixed cookie value.

MitigationUpgrade pfSense to version 2.1.4 or later which contains the fix for proper session ID regeneration upon login.

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 data
PfsenseApplication
Affected:<= 2.1.3

CVSS 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
M
Authentication
None
Confidentiality
Partial
Integrity
Partial
Availability
Partial

AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Check installed pfSense version
    Access the pfSense web interface and navigate to Status > Dashboard, or run 'pfSense -v' via console/ssh. Alternatively, check /etc/version or the system info page.
    Affected if The version displayed is 2.1.3 or lower (any version in the 2.1.x line up to and including 2.1.3)
  2. Verify web interface is exposed
    Determine if the pfSense web GUI (port 443 or 80) is accessible from untrusted networks or the internet. Check firewall rules and NAT port forwards on the WAN interface.
    Affected if The web authentication interface is reachable from networks other than trusted administration IPs
  3. Confirm session behavior on login
    Using a test account, observe the session cookie (typically 'PHPSESSID' or similar) before and after login. Use browser dev tools or a proxy to capture and compare the session ID values.
    Affected if The session ID value does not change after successful authentication - the same ID used before login remains valid after login

If pfSense version is 2.1.3 or lower AND the web interface is accessible to potential attackers, the session fixation vulnerability is present.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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 data
Upgrade available Upgrade to a release after 2.1.3
Interim mitigation

Upgrade pfSense to version 2.1.4 or later which contains the fix for proper session ID regeneration upon login.

Fix this in Pfsense Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
10.0 hours of engineering $1,780
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,848.

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2014-4691 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

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.

What belongs here
  • 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
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data