CVE-2017-5521

8.1 HIGH CISA KEV - Actively Exploited
Published: January 17, 2017 Modified: October 22, 2025

Description

An issue was discovered on NETGEAR R8500, R8300, R7000, R6400, R7300, R7100LG, R6300v2, WNDR3400v3, WNR3500Lv2, R6250, R6700, R6900, and R8000 devices. They are prone to password disclosure via simple crafted requests to the web management server. The bug is exploitable remotely if the remote management option is set, and can also be exploited given access to the router over LAN or WLAN. When trying to access the web panel, a user is asked to authenticate; if the authentication is canceled and password recovery is not enabled, the user is redirected to a page that exposes a password recovery token. If a user supplies the correct token to the page /passwordrecovered.cgi?id=TOKEN (and password recovery is not enabled), they will receive the admin password for the router. If password recovery is set the exploit will fail, as it will ask the user for the recovery questions that were previously set when enabling that feature. This is persistent (even after disabling the recovery option, the exploit will fail) because the router will ask for the security questions.

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CVSS v3.x Details

0.0 Low Medium High Critical 10.0
Vector String
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

References to Advisories, Solutions, and Tools

Patch Vendor Advisory Exploit Third Party Advisory
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/95457
Source: cve@mitre.org
Broken Link Third Party Advisory VDB Entry
https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/41205/
Source: cve@mitre.org
Exploit Third Party Advisory VDB Entry
http://kb.netgear.com/30632/Web-GUI-Password-Recovery-and-Exposure-Security-Vulnerability
Source: af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108
Vendor Advisory
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/95457
Source: af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108
Broken Link Third Party Advisory VDB Entry
https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/41205/
Source: af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108
Exploit Third Party Advisory VDB Entry

7 reference(s) from NVD

Quick Stats

CVSS v3 Score
8.1 / 10.0
EPSS (Exploit Probability)
93.8%
100th percentile
Exploitation Status
Actively Exploited
Remediation due: 2022-09-29

Affected Vendors

netgear