CVE-2023-41841: Fortinet FortiOS · Escalation of Privilege
Affects Fortinet FortiOSSource CVE Database V5
Not known to be exploited · CVSS 7.4 High.
Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 14:05 UTC
- EPSS
- 1.0% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 64% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:H/E:U/RL:X/RC:XExploitation evidence
Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 10 Oct 2023
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors
A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 26 Oct 2026.
What to do
Affected software
| Product | Affected | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
| Fortinet FortiOS | Affected
| Fixed in– |
AI-suggested
- Immediately review and restrict the assignment of the prof-admin profile to only the most trusted and necessary personnel to minimize the attack surface.
- Monitor administrative activities and logs for unusual or unauthorized actions performed by prof-admin users to detect potential exploitation attempts early.
- Apply Fortinet’s official patches or updates as soon as they become available; monitor Fortinet security advisories regularly for patch releases addressing CVE-2023-41841.
- Implement network segmentation and access controls to limit exposure of FortiOS management interfaces to only trusted networks and administrators.
- Employ multi-factor authentication (MFA) for all administrative access to FortiOS devices to reduce the risk of credential compromise.
- Conduct regular security audits and penetration tests focusing on administrative privilege management and FortiOS configurations.
- Consider deploying additional monitoring tools that can detect anomalous changes in firewall rules or configuration to quickly identify exploitation attempts.
- Educate administrators on the risks associated with privilege escalation vulnerabilities and enforce strict change management procedures for FortiOS devices.
Description
CVE-2023-41841 is a high-severity privilege escalation vulnerability affecting Fortinet FortiOS versions 7.0.0 through 7.0.11 and 7.2.0 through 7.2.4. The flaw allows an attacker with prof-admin profile privileges to perform unauthorized elevated actions due to improper authorization checks.