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Xg Firewall FirmwareOperating system · Sophos

CVE-2022-3226

HIGH · 7.2 CVSS v3.1 Published 2022-12-01
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 19.0 or later.
See remediation →
78/100
Remediation priority · High
Remotely reachable 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 OS command injection vulnerability allows admins to execute code via SSL VPN configuration uploads in Sophos Firewall releases older than version 19.5 GA.

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

An OS command injection vulnerability in Sophos Firewall's SSL VPN configuration upload functionality allows authenticated administrators to execute arbitrary operating system commands. This pre-authentication privilege escalation flaw affects versions prior to 19.5 GA, enabling attackers with admin access to gain full system command execution.

MitigationUpgrade Sophos Firewall to version 19.5 GA or later to resolve this OS command injection vulnerability in the SSL VPN configuration upload feature.

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
Xg Firewall FirmwareOperating system
Affected:<= 19.0

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

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/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. Identify Sophos XG Firewall device
    Log into the firewall management console or check the device model via command line (e.g., 'sfos --version' or through the web UI dashboard showing the device name and model)
    Affected if The device is NOT a Sophos XG Firewall (the vulnerability only affects this product)
  2. Check firmware version
    Run 'sfos --version' from CLI or view the firmware version in the web UI under 'System > Overview' or 'System > Backup & Firmware'
    Affected if The installed firmware version is 19.0 or earlier (versions prior to 19.5 GA are affected)
  3. Verify SSL VPN configuration exists
    Navigate to 'VPN > SSL VPN' in the web management console or run 'vpn --ssl' CLI command to check if SSL VPN is configured
    Affected if SSL VPN is enabled and a configuration profile exists (the flaw is in the SSL VPN configuration upload functionality)
  4. Confirm admin user accounts exist
    Check for existing administrator accounts under 'Administration > Admin Users' in the web UI or run 'admin' CLI commands to list admin accounts
    Affected if There is at least one active administrator account (authenticated admin access is required to exploit this flaw)

A Sophos XG Firewall with firmware version 19.0 or earlier that has SSL VPN configured and has admin users present is vulnerable to CVE-2022-3226.

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 19.0
Interim mitigation

Upgrade Sophos Firewall to version 19.5 GA or later to resolve this OS command injection vulnerability in the SSL VPN configuration upload feature.

Recommended fix High confidence

Sophos XG Firewall version 19.5 GA or later

  1. 1. Log in to the Sophos XG Firewall admin console as an administrator
  2. 2. Navigate to Backup & Firmware or System > Firmware in the admin interface
  3. 3. Back up the current firewall configuration to ensure it can be restored if needed
  4. 4. Download the Sophos XG Firewall version 19.5 GA (or later) firmware from the official Sophos support portal at www.sophos.com/support
  5. 5. Upload the new firmware file through the admin console's firmware update function
  6. 6. Apply the firmware upgrade and allow the firewall to reboot
  7. 7. After reboot, verify the firewall is running version 19.5 or later by checking System > Dashboard or System > Firmware
  8. 8. Confirm the SSL VPN functionality is working correctly and test that the vulnerability is no longer present
Caveat Standard firewall firmware upgrade; test in non-production environment first and ensure configuration backup before proceeding

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

Fix this in Xg Firewall Firmware Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation3.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
8.0 hours of engineering $1,420
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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-2022-3226 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