CVE-2023-1671
RCE in Sophos Web Appliance ≤ 4.3.10.4
Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:HCVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.
Summary
CVE-2023-1671 is a critical-severity Command Injection (CWE-77) vulnerability in Sophos Web Appliance. Its CVSS base score is 9.8 (Critical).
Operationally, ranked in the top 0.0% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; CISA has added it to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.
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-2023-1671 is a pre-authentication command injection vulnerability in the warn-proceed handler of Sophos Web Appliance versions prior to 4.3.10.4. The flaw, tracked under CWE-77, permits unauthenticated remote attackers to execute arbitrary operating-system commands and carries a CVSS 3.1 base score of 9.8.
An attacker with network access can submit a crafted request to the affected handler and obtain code execution without credentials or user interaction, resulting in full compromise of the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the appliance.
Sophos security advisory sophos-sa-20230404-swa-rce states that the issue is resolved in version 4.3.10.4 and urges customers to apply the update immediately. The vulnerability is also listed in CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, confirming observed in-the-wild exploitation. The associated EPSS score has remained consistently high, with a peak of 0.9691 and a current value of 0.9430.
OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2023-23899
Vulnerability Data
A pre-auth command injection vulnerability in the warn-proceed handler of Sophos Web Appliance older than version 4.3.10.4 allows execution of arbitrary code.
- CWE(s)
- KEV Date Added
- 16 November 2023
Related Threats
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Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
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.8.25 mandates secure SDLC practices including secure coding guidelines, security requirements, checkpoints, testing (scans/penetration), and developer training that reduce command injection defects, but leaves a minority slice (e.g. incomplete implementation of those practices, outsourced development without full assurance, or post-SDLC changes) where the weakness can still arise and be exploitable.
Application security requirements explicitly call for controls against injection flaws including command injection.
A.8.27 mandates security-by-design principles (e.g. distrust external input, secure session control, data validation/sanitization, least privilege) and design reviews that can stop command injection from being introduced, but this is only a minority slice of CWE-77 because the weakness can still arise in code that bypasses those principles, in non-reviewed components, or in runtime injection vectors the architecture review does not reach.
Secure coding standards require proper escaping and parameterization of commands, directly eliminating CWE-77.
Security testing in development catches command-injection vulnerabilities before release.
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-77, a class-level weakness, and none of its children carries one either.