Ac5 FirmwareOperating system · Tenda

CVE-2023-25216

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2023-04-07
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
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
Tenda AC5 US_AC5V1.0RTL_V15.03.06.28 was discovered to contain a stack overflow via the formSetFirewallCfg function. This vulnerability allows attackers to cause a Denial of Service (DoS) or execute arbitrary code via a crafted payload.

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

A stack overflow vulnerability exists in the formSetFirewallCfg function of Tenda AC5 router firmware US_AC5V1.0RTL_V15.03.06.28. The vulnerability allows remote attackers to send specially crafted payloads that overflow a stack-based buffer, potentially enabling denial of service conditions or arbitrary code execution with elevated privileges.

MitigationUpdate the Tenda AC5 firmware to a version that addresses this vulnerability. If no patched firmware is available, consider network segmentation to limit exposure to untrusted users and disable remote management interfaces from the WAN.

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
Ac5 FirmwareOperating system
Affected:= 15.03.06.28

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. Identify Tenda AC5 firmware version
    Log into the router web interface (typically at 192.168.0.1) and navigate to System Settings > Firmware Version, or check the label on the device itself for the firmware version number.
    Affected if The firmware version is exactly 15.03.06.28 (US_AC5V1.0RTL_V15.03.06.28)
  2. Verify the formSetFirewallCfg function exists
    Access the router web interface and locate the firewall configuration page (usually under Security or Firewall settings). The formSetFirewallCfg is the backend function handling these requests.
    Affected if The router has a firewall configuration page accessible via the web interface
  3. Confirm remote management is enabled
    Check router settings under System Settings > Remote Management or similar. Look for options that allow WAN access to the web management interface.
    Affected if Remote management from WAN is enabled, exposing the vulnerable function to network attackers
  4. Check if the device is accessible from untrusted networks
    Determine if the router's web interface is reachable from the internet by attempting to access the WAN IP on ports 80/443, or by checking port forwarding/firewall rules.
    Affected if The router management interface is exposed to the internet or untrusted networks

You are affected if your Tenda AC5 firmware is exactly version 15.03.06.28 and the router web interface (specifically the firewall configuration function) is accessible from network locations where untrusted attackers can send requests.

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
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Update the Tenda AC5 firmware to a version that addresses this vulnerability. If no patched firmware is available, consider network segmentation to limit exposure to untrusted users and disable remote management interfaces from the WAN.

Fix this in Ac5 Firmware Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation1.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
8.0 hours of engineering $1,390
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Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2023-25216 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.

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-2023-25216 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
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