CVE-2018-13374
Fortinet Fortiadc 5.4.0 – 5.4.5
Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:NCVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.
Summary
CVE-2018-13374 is a medium-severity Incorrect Permission Assignment for Critical Resource (CWE-732) vulnerability in Fortinet Fortiadc. Its CVSS base score is 4.3 (Medium).
Operationally, ranked in the top 1% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; CISA has added it to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog.
Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary
Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.
CVE-2018-13374 is an improper access control vulnerability (CWE-732) affecting Fortinet FortiOS versions 6.0.2, 5.6.7 and earlier as well as FortiADC versions 6.1.0, 6.0.0–6.0.1, and 5.4.0–5.4.4. The flaw resides in the LDAP server connectivity test functionality and permits an authenticated user to obtain the login credentials configured for an LDAP server in FortiGate by redirecting the test request to an attacker-controlled rogue LDAP server.
An attacker with low privileges can exploit the issue over the network with low attack complexity. By supplying a malicious LDAP server address during the connectivity test, the attacker receives the clear-text credentials that FortiGate would otherwise use to bind to the legitimate LDAP directory, resulting in partial disclosure of sensitive configuration data without requiring user interaction.
The FortiGuard advisory FG-IR-18-157 addresses the issue and is referenced in CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, indicating confirmed in-the-wild exploitation. Organizations are advised to apply the patches or configuration updates published in the advisory to prevent credential exposure.
OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2018-5318
Vulnerability Data
A Improper Access Control in Fortinet FortiOS 6.0.2, 5.6.7 and before, FortiADC 6.1.0, 6.0.0 to 6.0.1, 5.4.0 to 5.4.4 allows attacker to obtain the LDAP server login credentials configured in FortiGate via pointing a LDAP server connectivity test request to…
more
a rogue LDAP server instead of the configured one.
- CWE(s)
- KEV Date Added
- 08 September 2022
Related Threats
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Likely Mitigating Controls AI
Per-CVE control mapping for this CVE has not run yet; the list below is derived from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry.
Procedures support proper permission assignment for critical resources through documented controls.
Attribute management for resources provides a mechanism to assign and maintain correct permissions based on security labels.
Prevents overly permissive assignments to critical resources by limiting to task needs.
Training policy covers correct permission assignment, reducing the ability to exploit incorrect permission assignments for critical resources.
Training on permission management reduces incorrect permission assignments for critical resources.
Audit logs and logging tools are critical resources whose protection requires correct permission assignments to block unauthorized actions.
Assessments review permission assignments on critical resources to confirm correctness, mitigating exploitation via incorrect permissions.
Certification includes checking that permissions on critical resources are correctly assigned.
Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI
Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.
A.5.1 only requires the existence of an overarching policy and topic-specific policies (including on access control); it does not itself enforce, implement, or act on permissions and therefore cannot stop CWE-732 from being exploitable.
A.5.12 only defines and communicates a classification scheme (with owners accountable for applying it); it does not itself enforce, restrict or decide any permissions, so the CWE-732 permission flaw can still be present and exploitable.
A.5.15 directly requires determining access needs, defining and communicating an access control policy, implementing rules that map rights/restrictions to entities (including consistency with classification), and considering need-to-know, privileged restrictions, segregation, formal authorization, and dynamic factors — which squarely stops most incorrect permission assignments from being exploitable; the bounded remainder is misconfigurations that violate the policy itself.
A.5.18 directly governs the provisioning, review, adjustment and revocation of logical access rights (including for critical resources) according to business needs, policy, SoD and risk, which stops most unintended actors from reading/modifying via incorrect permissions; the bounded remainder is incorrect permission assignments that are not access-right decisions at all (e.g. filesystem umask, ACL syntax errors).
Documented responsibility for protecting assets encourages correct permission settings rather than leaving them at insecure defaults.
Monitoring supplier policy changes and conducting audits can reveal incorrect permission assignments on resources managed by the supplier, prompting corrective action before they are exploited.
Hardening callouts derived
DISA STIG baselines are authored against specific weaknesses. Where this CVE cites a broad weakness class, the mapping is not asserted at that abstraction (owner ruling, 2026-09-25: grade only at Base and below), so no rule is shown here rather than a rule shown against the wrong grain.