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ForticlientApplication · Fortinet

CVE-2019-17658

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2020-03-12
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 6.2.2 or later.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
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
An unquoted service path vulnerability in the FortiClient FortiTray component of FortiClientWindows v6.2.2 and prior allow an attacker to gain elevated privileges via the FortiClientConsole executable service path.

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

The FortiClient FortiTray service on Windows uses an unquoted service path for the FortiClientConsole executable, allowing an attacker to inject a malicious executable by placing it in an intermediate directory in the path. This enables privilege escalation from any authenticated user to SYSTEM level.

MitigationUpdate FortiClient Windows to a version newer than 6.2.2, or reconfigure the service to use a quoted executable path.

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
ForticlientApplication
Affected:>= 6.0.0, <= 6.0.9>= 6.2.0, <= 6.2.2

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
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 checks

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

  1. Check if FortiClient is installed
    Open Windows Services (services.msc) and look for a service named 'FortiTray' or check Program Files for FortiClient installation directory
    Affected if FortiClient is not installed - the vulnerability does not apply
  2. Determine FortiClient version
    Open Control Panel > Programs and Features, find FortiClient, and note the version number; or check the file version of FortiClient.exe in the installation directory
    Affected if Version is outside the ranges 6.0.0-6.0.9 or 6.2.0-6.2.2 - not affected
  3. Inspect FortiTray service configuration
    Open Command Prompt as administrator and run: sc qc FortiTray - this displays the service configuration including BINARY_PATH_NAME
    Affected if The BINARY_PATH_NAME is unquoted (contains spaces without surrounding quotes) - vulnerable condition present
  4. Verify service executable path
    Run: sc qc FortiTray and examine the path in BINARY_PATH_NAME; check if the path to FortiClientConsole.exe contains spaces and is not enclosed in quotes
    Affected if Path contains unquoted spaces - vulnerable to DLL/executable injection

A system is affected if FortiClient version is between 6.0.0-6.0.9 or 6.2.0-6.2.2 AND the FortiTray service has an unquoted executable path containing spaces.

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.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to a release after 6.2.2
Interim mitigation

Update FortiClient Windows to a version newer than 6.2.2, or reconfigure the service to use a quoted executable path.

Recommended fix Moderate confidence

FortiClient 6.4.0 or later

  1. 1. Identify the current FortiClient version installed by opening FortiClient and navigating to Help > About, or checking Add/Remove Programs
  2. 2. Navigate to Fortinet's official support portal at https://support.fortinet.com/
  3. 3. Download FortiClient version 6.4.0 or later from the Fortinet download center
  4. 4. Uninstall the current FortiClient version via Control Panel > Programs and Features
  5. 5. Restart the system
  6. 6. Install the newer FortiClient version (6.4.0 or later) with administrator privileges
  7. 7. Verify the FortiTray service path is properly quoted by checking the service properties in Services.msc
Caveat Upgrading FortiClient may require reconfiguration of VPN profiles, endpoint policies, and software deployment packages; ensure backup of existing configuration before upgrade

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Forticlient Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation3.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
8.0 hours of engineering $1,440
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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-2019-17658 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
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data