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CVE-2017-5521

Exposure of Sensitive Information — is CVE-2017-5521real, exploitable, or a false positive? Here's the community ground truth.

High · CVSS 8.1EPSS 89.3%CISA KEVCWE-200 · Exposure of Sensitive Information

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

An issue was discovered on NETGEAR R8500, R8300, R7000, R6400, R7300, R7100LG, R6300v2, WNDR3400v3, WNR3500Lv2, R6250, R6700, R6900, and R8000 devices. They are prone to password disclosure via simple crafted requests to the web management server. The bug is exploitable remotely if the remote management option is set, and can also be exploited given access to the router over LAN or WLAN. When trying to access the web panel, a user is asked to authenticate; if the authentication is canceled and password recovery is not enabled, the user is redirected to a page that exposes a password recovery token. If a user supplies the correct token to the page /passwordrecovered.cgi?id=TOKEN (and password recovery is not enabled), they will receive the admin password for the router. If password recovery is set the exploit will fail, as it will ask the user for the recovery questions that were previously set when enabling that feature. This is persistent (even after disabling the recovery option, the exploit will fail) because the router will ask for the security questions.

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Community ground truth

Community verdict

2 verdicts
Not a real issue

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Community real-world severity: High (High 2) — CVSS base score 8.1

In line with its CVSS base score.

Field notes & remediation

Verdicts are the quick signal — notes are the evidence and fixes behind them.

  • 0
    Field note · Waleed AzizCurated

    NETGEAR Multiple Devices Exposure of Sensitive Information Vulnerability — Multiple NETGEAR devices are prone to admin password disclosure via simple crafted requests to the web management server. Listed in the CISA KEV catalog (added 2022-09-08) — confirmed exploited in the wild, not theoretical. FIRST EPSS puts the chance of exploitation in the next 30 days at ~89%. Treat it as real and prioritize remediation over triage.

  • 0
    Remediation · Priya NairCurated

    Required action for NETGEAR Multiple Devices: Apply updates per vendor instructions. If the affected device has since entered end-of-life, it should be disconnected if still in use. CISA set a federal remediation due date of 2022-09-29. After patching, verify the vulnerable path is no longer reachable before closing the finding.

Same weaknessCWE-200 · Exposure of Sensitive Information.