Security Resilience

CVE-2023-38120

RCE in Adtran Sr400Ac Firmware 10.8.5.1 … 10.8.8.1

RCECommand Injection
Published
03 May 2024
Modified
12 August 2025
CVSS Score v3 8.8
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS Score 0.038 90th percentile
Risk Priority 69 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-2023-38120 is a high-severity OS Command Injection (CWE-78) vulnerability in Adtran Sr400Ac Firmware. Its CVSS base score is 8.8 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique NTDS (T1003.003); ranked in the top 10% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; 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.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

A05:2025 Injection

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

Adtran SR400ac ping Command Injection Remote Code Execution Vulnerability. This vulnerability allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code on affected installations of Adtran SR400ac routers. Although authentication is required to exploit this vulnerability, the existing authentication mechanism can be bypassed.…

more

The specific flaw exists within the ping command, which is available over JSON-RPC. A crafted host parameter can trigger execution of a system call composed from a user-supplied string. An attacker can leverage this vulnerability to execute code in the context of root. . Was ZDI-CAN-20525.

CWE(s)
CWE-78CWE-77

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.
attack.mitre.org →
T1007 System Service Discovery Discovery
Adversaries may try to gather information about registered local system services.
attack.mitre.org →
T1010 Application Window Discovery Discovery
Adversaries may attempt to get a listing of open application windows.
attack.mitre.org →
T1021.004 SSH Lateral Movement
Adversaries may use [Valid Accounts](https://attack.
attack.mitre.org →
T1021.008 Direct Cloud VM Connections Lateral Movement
Adversaries may leverage [Valid Accounts](https://attack.
attack.mitre.org →
T1027.001 Binary Padding Stealth
Adversaries may use binary padding to add junk data and change the on-disk representation of malware.
attack.mitre.org →
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2024-31977Same vendor: Adtran
CVE-2024-39345Same vendor: Adtran
CVE-2025-59831Shared CWE-77, CWE-78
CVE-2025-8827Shared CWE-77, CWE-78
CVE-2026-9404Shared CWE-77, CWE-78
CVE-2026-9543Shared CWE-77, CWE-78
CVE-2025-1609Shared CWE-77, CWE-78
CVE-2026-8271Shared CWE-77, CWE-78
CVE-2026-9511Shared CWE-77, CWE-78
CVE-2025-6898Shared CWE-77, CWE-78

Affected Assets

adtran
sr400ac firmware
10.8.5.1, 10.8.8.1

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

SA-11 Developer Testing and Evaluation good match

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

SI-10 Information Input Validation good match

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

AC-6 Least Privilege partial match

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

CM-7 Least Functionality partial match

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

SA-8 Security and Privacy Engineering Principles partial match

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.

A.5.14 Information transfer partial match
removes
A.5.15 Access control partial match
removes
A.5.16 Identity management partial match
removes
A.5.17 Authentication information partial match
removes
A.5.18 Access rights partial match
removes
A.8.10 Information deletion partial match
removes

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.

References