Is CVE-2023-44221 actively exploited?

Yes. KEV Intelligence tracks CVE-2023-44221 as a known exploited vulnerability. Confidence is confirmed.

What exploitation activity has KEV Intelligence observed?

KEV Intelligence has not yet recorded sensor-observed exploitation attempts for CVE-2023-44221. Our sensors continue to monitor for activity targeting this CVE.

Which versions are affected?

CVE-2023-44221 affects SonicWall SMA100. Reported affected version: 10.2.1.9-57sv and earlier versions.

Yes. CVE-2023-44221 is listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog. KEV Intelligence attested it 397 days ahead of CISA.

CVE-2023-44221 Exploited in the Wild — SMA100

Decision summary

What security teams need to know first

Direct answers before the deeper technical record.

What it is

CVE-2023-44221 is a vulnerability affecting SonicWall SMA100. Improper neutralization of special elements in the SMA100 SSL-VPN management interface allows a remote authenticated attacker with administrative privilege...

Is it exploited?

Yes. KEV Intelligence tracks this CVE as a known exploited vulnerability. Confidence is confirmed.

Who is affected?

SonicWall / SMA100 10.2.1.9-57sv and earlier versions.

What should we do?

Prioritize remediation. Validate affected assets and apply vendor fixes on an accelerated timeline.

Overview

SMA100 Command Injection

Improper neutralization of special elements in the SMA100 SSL-VPN management interface allows a remote authenticated attacker with administrative privilege to inject arbitrary commands as a 'nobody' user, potentially leading to OS Command Injection Vulnerability.

Vendor Product Affected Status

SonicWall SMA100 10.2.1.9-57sv and earlier versions Affected

View vendor advisory

Published: 05 Dec 2023
Exploitation Reported: 01 May 2025
Attack vector: Remote
Complexity: Low
Privileges: High
User interaction: None

CVE References

CVE Record CVE.org · CVE Record https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-44221
Vendor Advisory — psirt.global.sonicwall.com psirt.global.sonicwall.com · Vendor Advisory https://psirt.global.sonicwall.com/vuln-detail/SNWLID-2023-0018

Exploitation evidence

Why KEV Intelligence marks this CVE as exploited

Third-party attestation and first-party sensor observation are shown separately so teams can judge the evidence chain.

Exploited in the wild

CISA

Recorded 01 May 2025

Independent exploitation attestation added to the KEV Intelligence record.

Known exploited vulnerability sources

Per-source evidence links for KEV attestations are available through the KEV Intelligence Pro API.

Learn about Pro API access

Source	Added
TheHackerNews First	2025-05-01 06:22 UTC
CISA	2026-06-02 14:08 UTC

Detection

Operational artifacts and observed signals

Make the evidence actionable in scanner, SOC, and edge-control workflows.

Observed signals

Request targets: 0
User-Agents: 0

Raw values available in Pro and Enterprise.

Scanner coverage

No scanner integrations recorded yet.

Virtual patch status

No KEV Intelligence virtual patch is currently available. Future rules ship for ModSecurity, Cloudflare, and AWS WAF.

Learn about virtual patches →

No detection artifacts or sensor request patterns are available for this CVE yet.

Check back as sensor telemetry and scanner integrations are updated.

Risk and context

Severity, weaknesses, and research context

CVSS v3.1

7.2 High

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

EPSS

74.9%

Weaknesses

Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an OS Command ('OS Command Injection') CWE-78

Recent mention · Watchtower Labs

SonicBoom, From Stolen Tokens to Remote Shells - SonicWall SMA (CVE-2023-44221, CVE-2024-38475)

Another day, another edge device being targeted - it’s a typical Thursday!In today’s blog post, we’re excited to share our previously private analysis of the now exploited in-the-wild N-day vulnerabilities affecting SonicWall’s SMA100 appliance. Over the last few months, our...

Read full advisory

All Mentions

Recent mention · Watchtower Labs

SonicBoom, From Stolen Tokens to Remote Shells - SonicWall SMA (CVE-2023-44221, CVE-2024-38475)

Watchtower Labs · 01 May 2025

Another day, another edge device being targeted - it’s a typical Thursday!In today’s blog post, we’re excited to share our previously private analysis of the now exploited in-the-wild N-day vulnerabilities affecting SonicWall’s SMA100 appliance. Over the last few months, our client

Recent mention · All CISA Advisories

CISA Adds Two Known Exploited Vulnerabilities to Catalog

All CISA Advisories · 01 May 2025

CISA has added two new vulnerabilities to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog, based on evidence of active exploitation. CVE-2024-38475 Apache HTTP Server Improper Escaping of Output Vulnerability CVE-2023-44221 SonicWall SMA100 Appliances OS Command Injection Vulnerability These types of vulnerabilities are frequent attack vectors for malicious cyber actors and pose significant risks to the federal enterprise. Binding Operational Directive (BOD) 22-01: Reducing the Significant Risk of Known Exploited Vulnerabilities established the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog as a...

Recent mention · TheHackerNews

SonicWall Confirms Active Exploitation of Flaws Affecting Multiple Appliance Models

TheHackerNews · 01 May 2025

SonicWall has revealed that two now-patched security flaws impacting its SMA100 Secure Mobile Access (SMA) appliances have been exploited in the wild. The vulnerabilities in question are listed below - CVE-2023-44221 (CVSS score: 7.2) - Improper neutralization of special elements in the SMA100 SSL-VPN management interface allows a remote authenticated attacker with administrative privilege to

Timeline

From disclosure to observed exploitation

02 Jun 2026
Added to CISA KEV

Listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog
01 May 2025
Added to KEV Intelligence KEV Feed

High-confidence, third-party attested exploitation
05 Dec 2023
CVE published

Vulnerability disclosed publicly
26 Sep 2023
CVE ID reserved

Identifier reserved by the CNA

Pro API

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Confidence, exploit status, sensor telemetry, PoCs, scanner integrations, mentions, and tags are available programmatically for VM, SOC, and CTI workflows.

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Evidence confidence and provenance
First-party sensor telemetry
PoC and scanner references
Affected versions and enrichment
Automation-ready JSON delivery

GET /api/v2/pro/kevs/CVE-2023-44221

Free JSON includes basic KEV fields

{
  "cve_id": "CVE-2023-44221",
  "confidence": "Confirmed",
  "cvss_score": 7.2,
  "cvss_estimated": false,
  "epss_score": 0.74933,
  "exploit_status": {
    "exploited_in_the_wild": true,
    "active_exploitation_observed": false
  },
  "sensor_telemetry": { "attempts": 0, "sensors": 0 }
}

CVE-2023-44221

What security teams need to know first

SMA100 Command Injection

Tags

CVE References

Why KEV Intelligence marks this CVE as exploited

Exploited in the wild

Known exploited vulnerability sources

Operational artifacts and observed signals

Observed signals

Scanner coverage

Virtual patch status

Severity, weaknesses, and research context

Weaknesses

SonicBoom, From Stolen Tokens to Remote Shells - SonicWall SMA (CVE-2023-44221, CVE-2024-38475)

All Mentions

From disclosure to observed exploitation

Added to CISA KEV

Added to KEV Intelligence KEV Feed

CVE published

CVE ID reserved

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