CVE-2023-42784
Fortinet Fortiweb 7.0.0 – 7.4.7
Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:LSummary
CVE-2023-42784 is a medium-severity Improper Handling of Syntactically Invalid Structure (CWE-228) vulnerability in Fortinet Fortiweb. Its CVSS base score is 5.6 (Medium).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked at the 30th 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 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-2023-42784 is an improper handling of syntactically invalid structures (CWE-228) vulnerability affecting Fortinet FortiWeb in versions 7.4.0 through 7.4.6, 7.2.0 through 7.2.10, and 7.0.0 through 7.0.10. The issue stems from inadequate validation of crafted HTTP/S requests, enabling attackers to execute unauthorized code or commands.
Remote attackers require no privileges or user interaction to exploit this over the network (AV:N/PR:N/UI:N), but it demands high attack complexity (AC:H) with unchanged scope (S:U). Successful exploitation yields low impacts across confidentiality, integrity, and availability (C:L/I:L/A:L), for an overall CVSS v3.1 score of 5.6.
Mitigation details, including patches, are outlined in the Fortinet PSIRT advisory FG-IR-23-115 at https://fortiguard.fortinet.com/psirt/FG-IR-23-115.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2023-47214
Vulnerability Data
An improper handling of syntactically invalid structure in Fortinet FortiWeb at least verions 7.4.0 through 7.4.6 and 7.2.0 through 7.2.10 and 7.0.0 through 7.0.10 allows attacker to execute unauthorized code or commands via HTTP/S crafted requests.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
SI-10 requires validity checks on information inputs, directly stopping syntactically malformed data from being processed without proper handling.
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.
Secure SDLC practices directly require robust input validation and syntax handling to prevent malformed-structure flaws.
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.
Security testing can detect malformed-input issues but does not itself implement the handling logic.
Secure development life cycle mandates input validation and error handling that directly prevents improper handling of syntactically invalid structures.
Application security requirements include explicit rules for input validation and malformed-data handling.
Secure system architecture principles encourage robust input handling but do not prescribe the specific coding practice.
Secure coding explicitly requires validation of all input syntax and structure, directly eliminating CWE-228.