Cyber Resilience

CVE-2025-53843

Memory Safety in Fortinet Fortios 6.4.0 – 7.4.9

Published
18 November 2025
Modified
09 June 2026
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 7.5
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0059 45th percentile
Risk Priority 55 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2025-53843 is a high-severity Stack-based Buffer Overflow (CWE-121) vulnerability in Fortinet Fortios. Its CVSS base score is 7.5 (High).

Operationally, ranked at the 45th 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) and SI-16 (Memory Protection) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

A stack-based buffer overflow vulnerability in Fortinet FortiOS 7.6.0 through 7.6.3, FortiOS 7.4.0 through 7.4.8, FortiOS 7.2 all versions, FortiOS 7.0 all versions, FortiOS 6.4 all versions allows attacker to execute unauthorized code or commands via specially crafted packets

CWE(s)

Related Threats

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2023-46714Same product: Fortinet Fortios
CVE-2024-35279Same product: Fortinet Fortios
CVE-2023-46720Same product: Fortinet Fortios
CVE-2024-23110Same product: Fortinet Fortios
CVE-2023-29182Same product: Fortinet Fortios
CVE-2020-12812Same product: Fortinet Fortios
CVE-2025-58325Same product: Fortinet Fortios
CVE-2025-53844Same product: Fortinet Fortios
CVE-2023-28001Same product: Fortinet Fortios
CVE-2024-46668Same product: Fortinet Fortios

Affected Assets

fortinet
fortios
6.4.0 — 7.4.9 · 7.6.0 — 7.6.4

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)
  • SI-16 Memory Protection
  • SI-10 Information Input Validation
  • SI-2 Flaw Remediation
Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)
  • 2 hardening rules · 2 OS baselines
Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

prevent

Memory protection mechanisms (e.g., stack canaries, ASLR, DEP) directly block exploitation of the stack-based buffer overflow described in CVE-2025-53843.

prevent

Strict validation of all network packet inputs would have prevented the malformed packets from triggering the CWE-121 overflow in FortiOS.

prevent

Timely application of vendor patches eliminates the stack overflow vulnerability in the affected FortiOS versions before exploitation occurs.

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
prevents

Secure-development practices directly prevent introduction of stack buffer overflows.

ID.RA-01 partial match
prevents

Vulnerability scanning can discover stack buffer overflows but does not prevent their introduction.

PR.PS-02 partial match
prevents

Patching eliminates known instances of the weakness after discovery.

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.

detects

Security testing (fuzzing, static analysis) detects stack overflows before release.

prevents

Secure SDLC mandates buffer-safety practices that directly prevent stack overflows.

prevents

Application security requirements can specify buffer-size and input-validation rules.

prevents

Secure architecture principles include memory-safety and least-privilege stack usage.

prevents

Secure coding standards explicitly forbid unsafe buffer handling that causes CWE-121.

none

Change-management gates can enforce security reviews that catch buffer issues.

References