Administrator impersonation via unchecked cookie index
Published Aug 12, 2025 · Updated Jan 14, 2026
Authentication bypass in Fortinet FortiWeb allows remote attackers to gain administrator privileges through a crafted session cookie. The httpd cookie parser uses the unvalidated Era value as a shared-memory key index, allowing an out-of-bounds read to select a predictable zero key for payload encryption and HMAC signing. Exploitation requires non-public device and user details, an active target-user session, and brute-forcing a small session value; success permits impersonation of that administrator.
Summary
What happened
Authentication bypass in Fortinet FortiWeb allows remote attackers to gain administrator privileges through a crafted session cookie. The httpd cookie parser uses the unvalidated Era value as a shared-memory key index, allowing an out-of-bounds read to select a predictable zero key for payload encryption and HMAC signing. Exploitation requires non-public device and user details, an active target-user session, and brute-forcing a small session value; success permits impersonation of that administrator.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2025-52970
- Published
- Aug 12, 2025
- Updated
- Jan 14, 2026
- Vendor
- Fortinet
- Product
- FortiWeb
- Classifications
- CWE-233, T1190
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- unauthenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Aug 12, 2025CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Jan 14, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=7.0.0 <=7.0.10
- Affected versionversion=7.2.0 <=7.2.10
- Affected versionversion=7.4.0 <=7.4.7
- Affected versionversion=7.6.0 <=7.6.3
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
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.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
- FortMajeure proof of conceptproof of concept · demonstrated
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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