Security Resilience

CVE-2018-13382

Access Control in Fortinet Fortios 5.4.1 – 5.4.11

CISA KEVActive ExploitationEUVD ExploitedRansomware-linkedAccess Control
Published
04 June 2019
Modified
24 October 2025
KEV Added
10 January 2022
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 9.1
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N
EPSS Score 0.82 99.6th percentile
Risk Priority 93 floored blend · peak EPSS

CVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.

Summary

CVE-2018-13382 is a critical-severity Incorrect Authorization (CWE-863) vulnerability in Fortinet Fortios. Its CVSS base score is 9.1 (Critical).

Operationally, ranked in the top 0.4% 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-2018-13382 is an improper authorization vulnerability, tracked under CWE-863, that affects the SSL VPN web portal in Fortinet FortiOS versions 6.0.0 through 6.0.4, 5.6.0 through 5.6.8, and 5.4.1 through 5.4.10, as well as FortiProxy versions 2.0.0, 1.2.0 through 1.2.8, 1.1.0 through 1.1.6, and 1.0.0 through 1.0.7. The flaw carries a CVSS v3.1 score of 9.1 and permits unauthorized changes to user credentials through the web portal interface.

An unauthenticated remote attacker can exploit the issue over the network by sending specially crafted HTTP requests to the SSL VPN web portal, enabling modification of an affected user's password. Successful exploitation grants the attacker the ability to change credentials without authentication, resulting in high impact to confidentiality and integrity while availability remains unaffected.

Official Fortinet advisories FG-IR-18-389 and FG-IR-20-231 address the vulnerability and are referenced alongside the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog entry, confirming active exploitation in the wild. Security practitioners should apply the patches or mitigations detailed in those advisories for the listed FortiOS and FortiProxy releases.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

An Improper Authorization vulnerability in Fortinet FortiOS 6.0.0 to 6.0.4, 5.6.0 to 5.6.8 and 5.4.1 to 5.4.10 and FortiProxy 2.0.0, 1.2.0 to 1.2.8, 1.1.0 to 1.1.6, 1.0.0 to 1.0.7 under SSL VPN web portal allows an unauthenticated attacker to modify…

more

the password of an SSL VPN web portal user via specially crafted HTTP requests

CWE(s)
KEV Date Added
10 January 2022

Related Threats

Threat-Actor AttributionAI

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CVEs Like This One

CVE-2024-55591Same product: Fortinet Fortiosboth on KEV
CVE-2025-24472Same product: Fortinet Fortiosboth on KEV
CVE-2018-13383Same product: Fortinet Fortiosboth on KEV
CVE-2018-13379Same product: Fortinet Fortiosboth on KEV
CVE-2024-21762Same product: Fortinet Fortiosboth on KEV
CVE-2022-40684Same product: Fortinet Fortiosboth on KEV
CVE-2023-22641Same product: Fortinet Fortios
CVE-2022-41328Same product: Fortinet Fortiosboth on KEV
CVE-2023-44250Same product: Fortinet Fortios
CVE-2020-12812Same product: Fortinet Fortiosboth on KEV

Affected Assets

fortinet
fortiproxy
2.0.0 · ≤ 1.2.9
fortinet
fortios
5.4.1 — 5.4.11 · 5.6.0 — 5.6.9 · 6.0.0 — 6.0.5

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.

addresses: CWE-863

Periodic review and update of procedures reduces incorrect authorization implementations over time.

addresses: CWE-863

Supervision identifies cases where authorization logic incorrectly permits unauthorized actions.

addresses: CWE-863

Defining permitted attribute values and auditing modifications reduces the chance of incorrect authorization outcomes due to tampered or missing labels.

addresses: CWE-863

The authorization process and usage restrictions help prevent incorrect authorization for remote access types.

addresses: CWE-863

Establishing configuration and connection requirements helps ensure correct rather than incorrect authorization for wireless access.

addresses: CWE-863

Establishing connection authorization processes for mobile devices helps ensure authorization decisions are correctly implemented rather than incorrect.

addresses: CWE-863

Monitoring account use, notifying on changes, and reviewing accounts for compliance corrects incorrect authorization assignments.

addresses: CWE-863

Ensures authorization decisions for external system use are correctly implemented and enforced.

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.

blocks

Requiring consistency between access rights and classification plus formal approval steps ensures that the authorization logic correctly distinguishes between entities that should and should not be granted access.

blocks

A.5.18's provisioning, revocation, review and adjustment of access rights (incl. before role changes/termination, with segregation and owner approval) directly stops incorrect authorization decisions from being exploitable in the vast majority of cases; the bounded remainder is incorrectness inside the authorization logic itself (e.g. flawed conditional or missing check) rather than rights that were wrongly granted.

blocks

A.8.3 directly mandates restricting access to information per policies via configuration, identity/group controls, isolation, and dynamic techniques that enforce correct authorization decisions, addressing most but not all slices of CWE-863 (e.g., remainder in non-access-decision authorization errors like timing or environmental factors).

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.

  • No fine-grained STIG row for CWE-863, a class-level weakness, and none of its children carries one either.

References