CVE-2025-64446 is a critical escalation of privilege vulnerability affecting multiple versions of Fortinet FortiWeb, a web application firewall product widely used to protect web applications. The vulnerability arises from a relative path traversal flaw that can be triggered by specially crafted HTTP or HTTPS requests. By exploiting this flaw, an unauthenticated attacker can traverse directories on the FortiWeb system and execute administrative commands, effectively gaining full control over the device. This bypasses normal authentication and authorization mechanisms, allowing attackers to manipulate the system configuration, disable protections, or pivot into the protected network. The vulnerability affects FortiWeb versions 7.0.0 through 8.0.1, covering several major releases. The CVSS v3.1 base score of 9.4 reflects the vulnerability's network attack vector (AV:N), low attack complexity (AC:L), no privileges required (PR:N), no user interaction (UI:N), and high impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability (C:H/I:H/A:H). The exploitability is high, and the scope is unchanged (S:U), meaning the impact is confined to the vulnerable component but is severe. Although no public exploits are currently reported, the critical nature and ease of exploitation make this a high-risk vulnerability. Fortinet has published the vulnerability details but has not yet released patches at the time of this report, emphasizing the need for immediate defensive measures.

For European organizations, the impact of CVE-2025-64446 is substantial. FortiWeb is commonly deployed in enterprise and government environments to secure web-facing applications, making it a high-value target. Successful exploitation can lead to complete compromise of the FortiWeb appliance, allowing attackers to disable security controls, intercept or modify web traffic, and potentially gain further access to internal networks. This threatens the confidentiality of sensitive data, the integrity of web applications, and the availability of critical services. Sectors such as finance, healthcare, telecommunications, and public administration are particularly at risk due to their reliance on FortiWeb for regulatory compliance and security. The ability to execute administrative commands without authentication increases the risk of widespread disruption and data breaches. Additionally, the vulnerability could be leveraged in targeted attacks or ransomware campaigns, amplifying its impact across European critical infrastructure and private sector organizations.

Organizations should prioritize the following mitigation steps: 1) Immediately identify all FortiWeb appliances running affected versions (7.0.0 through 8.0.1) via asset inventories and network scans. 2) Apply vendor patches or updates as soon as they become available to remediate the vulnerability. 3) Until patches are deployed, implement strict network segmentation to isolate FortiWeb devices from untrusted networks and limit management interface exposure. 4) Employ web application firewall logging and intrusion detection systems to monitor for unusual HTTP/HTTPS requests indicative of path traversal attempts. 5) Use access control lists (ACLs) and firewall rules to restrict access to FortiWeb management interfaces to trusted IP addresses only. 6) Conduct regular security audits and vulnerability assessments focusing on FortiWeb configurations. 7) Educate security teams about this vulnerability to ensure rapid detection and response. 8) Consider deploying additional compensating controls such as multi-factor authentication for administrative access and enhanced monitoring of administrative command execution logs. These measures will reduce the attack surface and limit the potential for exploitation until a full patch can be applied.