SonicWall SMA 100 Series Vulnerabilities: Exploitation Risks and Mitigation

SonicWall has addressed multiple critical vulnerabilities in its SMA 100 series appliances, including three newly disclosed flaws (CVE-2025-32819, CVE-2025-32820, and CVE-2025-32821) that could allow attackers to chain exploits for root-level code execution. Rapid7 researchers confirmed these vulnerabilities, which affect SSLVPN functionality and require authenticated access for exploitation¹. The findings follow earlier reports of active exploitation involving related CVEs, prompting CISA to add two vulnerabilities (CVE-2023-44221 and CVE-2024-38475) to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog².

Vulnerability Breakdown

The three new CVEs affect SMA 200, 210, 400, 410, and 500v models, with the 1000 series remaining unaffected. CVE-2025-32819 (CVSS 8.8) allows authenticated users to delete arbitrary files and trigger factory resets through path traversal bypasses. CVE-2025-32820 (CVSS 8.3) enables directory permission manipulation, while CVE-2025-32821 (CVSS 6.7) permits command injection via admin privileges³. These vulnerabilities complement previously disclosed flaws, including CVE-2024-38475 (CVSS 9.8), an Apache HTTP Server path traversal issue that facilitates session hijacking without authentication.

CVE	CVSS	Type	Impact
CVE-2025-32819	8.8	Arbitrary File Delete	Factory reset trigger
CVE-2025-32820	8.3	Path Traversal	Directory permission modification
CVE-2025-32821	6.7	Command Injection	Malicious file upload

Exploitation Patterns

WatchTowr Labs demonstrated chained exploitation combining CVE-2024-38475 with CVE-2023-44221, achieving pre-authentication remote code execution⁴. Arctic Wolf reported active exploitation of CVE-2021-20035 since January 2025, where attackers executed commands as the ‘nobody’ user. SonicWall’s advisories confirm in-the-wild attacks targeting unpatched SMA appliances, particularly through session hijacking and credential theft vectors⁵.

Security teams should monitor for these indicators of compromise:

Unexpected firmware version changes
Unauthorized SSL-VPN session creations
Modified system directories (e.g., /var/www)

Mitigation Strategies

SonicWall released firmware updates addressing all current vulnerabilities, with version 10.2.1.14-75sv containing fixes for the most critical flaws. Network segmentation (CIS Safeguard 12.2) and DEP/WDEG activation provide additional protection layers⁶. For organizations unable to immediately patch, implementing these controls reduces attack surface:

“Federal agencies must patch CVE-2023-44221 and CVE-2024-38475 by May 22, 2025 per CISA’s binding operational directive.” – CISA KEV Catalog⁷

Security researchers recommend verifying patch installation through the MySonicWall portal and auditing device logs for signs of attempted exploitation, particularly focusing on Apache access logs and unexpected command execution events.

Conclusion

The SonicWall SMA 100 vulnerabilities demonstrate the risks of chained post-authentication exploits in network appliances. With proof-of-concept code publicly available and active exploitation confirmed, organizations must prioritize patching and monitor for related attack patterns. The historical context of SMA series vulnerabilities suggests these devices will remain high-value targets for threat actors.