CVE-2020-12271: Sophos SFOS SQL Injection Vulnerability

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2020-12271 is a critical (CVSS 10.0) SQL Injection vulnerability in Sophos SFOS. It is known to be exploited: CISA lists it, first on 03-11-2021. It has been used in ransomware campaigns. EPSS estimates a 42.43% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 98.6% of scored vulnerabilities. 1 public exploit is recorded.

Timeline

1. 27-04-2020
   PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
2. 03-11-2021
   Added to CISA KEVSophos SFOS SQL Injection Vulnerability
3. 03-05-2022
   CISA remediation dueApply updates per vendor instructions.
4. 21-10-2025
   Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.

Description

A SQL injection issue was found in SFOS 17.0, 17.1, 17.5, and 18.0 before 2020-04-25 on Sophos XG Firewall devices, as exploited in the wild in April 2020. This affected devices configured with either the administration (HTTPS) service or the User Portal exposed on the WAN zone. A successful attack may have caused remote code execution that exfiltrated usernames and hashed passwords for the local device admin(s), portal admins, and user accounts used for remote access (but not external Active Directory or LDAP passwords)

• CWE-89Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an SQL Command ('SQL Injection')The product constructs all or part of an SQL command using externally-influenced input from an upstream component, but it does not neutralize or incorrectly neutralizes special elements that could modify the intended SQL command when it is sent to a downstream component. Without sufficient removal or quoting of SQL syntax in user-controllable inputs, the generated SQL query can cause those inputs to be interpreted as SQL instead of ordinary user data.