Skip to content

CVE-2021-20023

Path Traversal: Is CVE-2021-20023 real, exploitable, or a false positive? Here's the community verdict.

signals

public sources

Exploited in wild
Yes
CISA KEV
Public exploit
None known
Metasploit/EDB/PoC
Base severity
4.9 Medium
CVSS
Exploitation prob.
51%
FIRST EPSS
Weakness
CWE-22 · Path Traversal
CWE

Confirmed exploited in the wild. Patch this first, regardless of the base score.

baseline read

auto · not a community verdict

Real — exploited in the wild

CISA confirms active exploitation. Treat scanner hits as true positives unless your specific version or config is unaffected.

Based on CISA KEV

Confirm or dispute →
Affected:SonicWall

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

SonicWall Email Security version 10.0.9.x contains a vulnerability that allows a post-authenticated attacker to read an arbitrary file on the remote host.

Published

Embed this verdict
TruePositive verdict for CVE-2021-20023
Markdown
[![TruePositive verdict](https://www.truepositive.app/cve/CVE-2021-20023/badge.svg)](https://www.truepositive.app/cve/CVE-2021-20023)
HTML
<a href="https://www.truepositive.app/cve/CVE-2021-20023"><img src="https://www.truepositive.app/cve/CVE-2021-20023/badge.svg" alt="TruePositive verdict for CVE-2021-20023"></a>

Live badge that updates automatically as the community verdict changes.

Community ground truth

Be the first practitioner to weigh in

So far this is only TruePositive's editorial baseline from public sources. Add your real-world verdict below — it becomes the signal the next person triaging this relies on.

🥇 The first 50 practitioners to contribute earn a Founding Contributor badge.

In your experience, is this finding real and exploitable?

awaiting field verdicts
Real, but not a risk here
Not a real issue

Curated baseline: TruePositive's read from public sources is Real & exploitable — a starting point, not a community verdict.

No account needed. Anonymous verdicts post as an unverified signal. Log in to make yours verified and earn reputation.

Field notes & remediation

Verdicts are the quick signal. Notes are the evidence and fixes behind them.

  • 0
    Field note · TruePositive EditorialCurated

    SonicWall Email Security Path Traversal Vulnerability — SonicWall Email Security contains a path traversal vulnerability that allows a post-authenticated attacker to read files on the remote host. This vulnerability has known usage in a SonicWall Email Security exploit chain along with CVE-2021-20021 and CVE-2021-20022 to achieve privilege escalation. Listed in the CISA KEV catalog (added 2021-11-03) — confirmed exploited in the wild, not theoretical. It is linked to known ransomware campaigns. FIRST EPSS puts the chance of exploitation in the next 30 days at ~51%. Treat it as real and prioritize remediation over triage.

  • 0
    Remediation · TruePositive EditorialCurated

    Required action for SonicWall SonicWall Email Security: Apply updates per vendor instructions. CISA set a federal remediation due date of 2021-11-17. After patching, verify the vulnerable path is no longer reachable before closing the finding.

Add a field note or remediationoptional
Note type

What are you adding?

Markdown supported · minimum 20 characters.

Same weakness: CWE-22 · Path Traversal.