CVE-2021-36195

Administrative shell command execution via crafted CLI arguments

Published Dec 8, 2021 · Updated Oct 25, 2024

Command injection in the FortiWeb command-line interpreter allows local users with administrative access to execute arbitrary shell commands. The interpreter fails to neutralize shell metacharacters in specially crafted command arguments before passing them to the underlying system shell. Exploitation requires authenticated, high-privilege local CLI access and grants command execution with the appliance shell's privileges.

CVSS severity4.2
Medium
EPSS probability1.08%
Next 30 days · Sep 16, 2026
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Based on sourced intelligence
Hinoki checkNot available
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Summary

What happened

Command injection in the FortiWeb command-line interpreter allows local users with administrative access to execute arbitrary shell commands. The interpreter fails to neutralize shell metacharacters in specially crafted command arguments before passing them to the underlying system shell. Exploitation requires authenticated, high-privilege local CLI access and grants command execution with the appliance shell's privileges.

The record

CVE
CVE-2021-36195
Published
Dec 8, 2021
Updated
Oct 25, 2024
Vendor
Fortinet
Product
FortiWeb
Classifications
CWE-78, T1059.004
Attack vector
local
Privileges
admin

Timeline

How it unfolded

  1. Dec 8, 2021CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
  2. Oct 25, 2024Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.

Exploitability

Present is not the same as exploitable

Compare your product and version with the public record. A matching version still requires validation against your environment.

Is a vulnerable build present?

Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.

  1. Affected versionversion=FortiWeb 6.4.1, 6.4.0, 6.3.0 through 6.3.15, 6.2.0 through 6.2.6, 6.1.0 through 6.1.2

What conditions does exploitation require?

Attack vectorlocal
Required privilegesadmin

What is affected?

Fortinet · FortiWebversion=FortiWeb 6.4.1, 6.4.0, 6.3.0 through 6.3.15, 6.2.0 through 6.2.6, 6.1.0 through 6.1.2

Published CVSS scores

8.8NIST NVDCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
9.0NIST NVDAV:N/AC:L/Au:S/C:C/I:C/A:C
4.2Fortinet, Inc.CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L

CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.

Attacks

What attackers are doing with it

Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.

Daily unique IPsNo honeypot observations are available for this CVE in the selected window.

No observations available

Sep 10, 2026Sep 16, 2026
Latest reporting daySep 16, 2026
Latest daily unique IPsUnavailable
Prior 30-day averageUnavailable
SourceShadowserver honeypots (KEV)
Vectorlocal
Privilegesadmin
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Public exploitUnconfirmed

Weakness, pattern, technique

CWE-78Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an OS Command ('OS Command Injection')
T1059.004Unix Shell

Public exploit references

No public exploit references are available in this record.

Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.

Technologies

Your stack

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Your stack

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