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FortiosOperating system · Fortinet

CVE-2018-9194

MEDIUM · 5.9 CVSS v3.0 Published 2018-09-05
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 5.4.9 or later.
See remediation →
68/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
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
A plaintext recovery of encrypted messages or a Man-in-the-middle (MiTM) attack on RSA PKCS #1 v1.5 encryption may be possible without knowledge of the server's private key. Fortinet FortiOS 5.4.6 to 5.4.9, 6.0.0 and 6.0.1 are vulnerable by such attack under VIP SSL feature when CPx being used.

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 · moderate confidence

FortiOS VIP SSL feature using CPx hardware has a vulnerability in RSA PKCS #1 v1.5 encryption that allows an attacker to recover plaintext from encrypted messages or perform a Man-in-the-middle attack without possessing the server's private key. This affects FortiOS versions 5.4.6 through 5.4.9 and 6.0.0-6.0.1.

MitigationUpgrade FortiOS to a version beyond 6.0.1 that contains the cryptographic fix, or if upgrading is not immediately feasible, review and potentially disable the VIP SSL feature using CPx until patching can be completed.

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
FortiosOperating system
Affected:>= 5.4.6, <= 5.4.9= 6.0.0= 6.0.1

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
High
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
None
Availability
None

CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N

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. Identify FortiOS version
    Run the command to display system status or version information on the FortiGate device
    Affected if The displayed version falls within 5.4.6-5.4.9, 6.0.0, or 6.0.1
  2. Confirm VIP SSL feature is in use
    Inspect the SSL VPN or VIP SSL configuration to determine if any virtual IP SSL profiles are defined and active
    Affected if VIP SSL profiles are configured and serving encrypted traffic
  3. Determine if CPx hardware is involved
    Review the hardware platform or accelerator settings for the SSL VPN virtual IP configuration
    Affected if The device uses CPx hardware acceleration for the VIP SSL feature

A user is affected if their FortiOS version is 5.4.6-5.4.9, 6.0.0, or 6.0.1 AND they have VIP SSL configured with CPx hardware acceleration enabled.

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 5.4.9
Interim mitigation

Upgrade FortiOS to a version beyond 6.0.1 that contains the cryptographic fix, or if upgrading is not immediately feasible, review and potentially disable the VIP SSL feature using CPx until patching can be completed.

Fix this in Fortios Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing8.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
24.0 hours of engineering $4,160
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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-2018-9194 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