Security Resilience

CVE-2023-37937

Command Injection in Fortinet Fortiswitch 6.0.0 – 6.2.8

Published
14 January 2025
Modified
31 January 2025
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 7.8
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0053 43th percentile
Risk Priority 57 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-2023-37937 is a high-severity OS Command Injection (CWE-78) vulnerability in Fortinet Fortiswitch. Its CVSS base score is 7.8 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique NTDS (T1003.003); ranked at the 43th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SA-11 (Developer Testing and Evaluation) and SI-10 (Information Input Validation) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

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-2023-37937 is an OS command injection vulnerability (CWE-78) affecting Fortinet FortiSwitch versions 7.4.0, 7.2.0 through 7.2.5, 7.0.0 through 7.0.7, 6.4.0 through 6.4.13, 6.2.0 through 6.2.7, and 6.0.0 through 6.0.7. The issue arises from improper neutralization of special elements used in OS commands, enabling attackers to execute unauthorized code or commands via the FortiSwitch CLI. It carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.8 (AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H) and was published on 2025-01-14.

The vulnerability can be exploited by an attacker with local access to the FortiSwitch and low privileges. Such an attacker can use the CLI to inject and execute arbitrary OS commands, potentially leading to high impacts on confidentiality, integrity, and availability, such as unauthorized data access, modification, or denial of service.

Mitigation details, including patches, are outlined in the Fortinet PSIRT advisory at https://fortiguard.com/psirt/FG-IR-23-258.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

An improper neutralization of special elements used in an os command ('os command injection') in Fortinet FortiSwitch version 7.4.0 and 7.2.0 through 7.2.5 and 7.0.0 through 7.0.7 and 6.4.0 through 6.4.13 and 6.2.0 through 6.2.7 and 6.0.0 through 6.0.7 allows…

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attacker to execute unauthorized code or commands via the FortiSwitch CLI.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1003.003 NTDS Credential Access
Adversaries may attempt to access or create a copy of the Active Directory domain database in order to steal credential information, as well as obtain other information about domain members such as devices, users, and access rights.
T1007 System Service Discovery Discovery
Adversaries may try to gather information about registered local system services.
T1010 Application Window Discovery Discovery
Adversaries may attempt to get a listing of open application windows.
T1021.004 SSH Lateral Movement
Adversaries may use [Valid Accounts](https://attack.
T1021.008 Direct Cloud VM Connections Lateral Movement
Adversaries may leverage [Valid Accounts](https://attack.
T1027.001 Binary Padding Stealth
Adversaries may use binary padding to add junk data and change the on-disk representation of malware.
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2024-26012Same vendor: Fortinet
CVE-2023-25607Same vendor: Fortinet
CVE-2025-53679Same vendor: Fortinet
CVE-2025-47857Same vendor: Fortinet
CVE-2023-27999Same vendor: Fortinet
CVE-2023-36548Same vendor: Fortinet
CVE-2023-34993Same vendor: Fortinet
CVE-2025-53949Same vendor: Fortinet
CVE-2023-26210Same vendor: Fortinet
CVE-2024-48891Same vendor: Fortinet

Affected Assets

fortinet
fortiswitch
7.4.0 · 6.0.0 — 6.2.8 · 6.4.0 — 6.4.14 · 7.0.0 — 7.0.8

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

—

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

—

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)

—

Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V1.2.5
  • V1.2.8

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

Developer testing and evaluation can discover missing or incorrect command sanitization during development.

Input validation directly neutralizes or rejects special characters that would otherwise alter OS command structure.

Least privilege reduces the permissions available to any process that could be subverted by injected commands.

Least functionality restricts available OS commands and interpreters, limiting the blast radius of injection.

Secure engineering principles require proper neutralization of untrusted input before command construction.

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

PR.PS-06 mostly match
blocks

PR.PS-06's SDLC practices directly require secure coding and input handling that blocks command-injection defects, yet the single broad outcome leaves many specific neutralization vectors and verification gaps unaddressed.

PR.PS-02 partial match
blocks

Routine patching/maintenance can remediate known command-injection CVEs in dependencies (partial forward) but does nothing to stop developers from introducing improper neutralization in custom code (none reverse).

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.

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References