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FortiosOperating system · Fortinet

CVE-2019-17655

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2020-06-16
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 6.2.3 or later.
See remediation →
84/100
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
A cleartext storage in a file or on disk (CWE-313) vulnerability in FortiOS SSL VPN 6.2.0 through 6.2.2, 6.0.9 and earlier and FortiProxy 2.0.0, 1.2.9 and earlier may allow an attacker to retrieve a logged-in SSL VPN user's credentials should that attacker be able to read the session file stored on the targeted device's system.

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

FortiOS SSL VPN versions 6.0.9 and earlier and 6.2.0-6.2.2, along with FortiProxy 1.2.9 and earlier and 2.0.0, store logged-in SSL VPN user credentials in cleartext within session files on disk. An attacker who can read these session files on the targeted device can obtain the user's plaintext credentials.

MitigationUpgrade to FortiOS 6.0.10, 6.2.3 or later, or FortiProxy 1.2.10, 2.0.1 or later. Until patched, strictly limit physical and administrative access to the FortiOS/FortiProxy device to prevent unauthorized reading of session 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 data
FortiosOperating system
Affected:< 6.2.3

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

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/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. Check FortiOS version
    Run 'get system status' or 'show system version' on the FortiOS CLI to retrieve the installed firmware version
    Affected if The version is 6.0.9 or earlier, or 6.2.0 through 6.2.2 (versions below 6.2.3)
  2. Verify SSL VPN is configured
    Run 'show vpn ssl settings' or 'get vpn ssl web config' to check if SSL VPN web mode or tunnel mode is enabled
    Affected if SSL VPN is enabled and users are able to authenticate to the VPN
  3. Inspect session file storage
    Examine the /var/log or /tmp directory for session-related files. Use 'diagnose vpn ssl list' to view active SSL VPN sessions
    Affected if Session files exist that contain user authentication credentials stored in plaintext

A system is affected if it runs FortiOS version 6.2.2 or earlier with SSL VPN enabled, as these versions store VPN user credentials in cleartext session files on disk.

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 6.2.3 or later
Fixed in 6.2.3
Interim mitigation

Upgrade to FortiOS 6.0.10, 6.2.3 or later, or FortiProxy 1.2.10, 2.0.1 or later. Until patched, strictly limit physical and administrative access to the FortiOS/FortiProxy device to prevent unauthorized reading of session files.

Fix this in Fortios Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
11.0 hours of engineering $1,930
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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-2019-17655 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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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
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