Cyber Posture

CVE-2019-17659

Low

Published: 17 March 2025

Published
17 March 2025
Modified
15 July 2025
KEV Added
Patch
CVSS Score 3.7 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
EPSS Score 0.0052 66.8th percentile
Risk Priority 8 60% EPSS · 20% KEV · 20% CVSS

Description

Adversaries may leverage external-facing remote services to initially access and/or persist within a network.

Security Summary

CVE-2019-17659 is a use of hard-coded cryptographic key vulnerability (CWE-798) in FortiSIEM version 5.2.6. The issue stems from a hard-coded private key that enables SSH access to the supervisor component as the restricted user "tunneluser".

A remote unauthenticated attacker can exploit this vulnerability by leveraging knowledge of the private key obtained from another FortiSIEM installation or a firmware image. Successful exploitation grants SSH access to the supervisor as "tunneluser", with a CVSS v3.1 base score of 3.7 (AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L), reflecting high attack complexity and primarily low availability impact.

Mitigation details are available in the Fortinet PSIRT advisory FG-IR-19-296 at https://fortiguard.fortinet.com/psirt/FG-IR-19-296.

Details

CWE(s)
CWE-798

Affected Products

fortinet
fortisiem
≤ 5.2.7

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1133 External Remote Services Persistence
Adversaries may leverage external-facing remote services to initially access and/or persist within a network.
Why these techniques?

Hardcoded private key enables remote unauthenticated SSH access to supervisor as tunneluser, directly facilitating initial access via external remote services.

Confidence: HIGH · MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise v19.0

References