# CVE-2023-34990: FortiWLM - Path Traversal

> Live exploitation tracking for CVE-2023-34990 by the CrowdSec Live Exploit Tracker, built from real-world attack data crowdsourced from CrowdSec's global network.

Page: https://tracker.crowdsec.net/cves/CVE-2023-34990

## Key facts

- **Exploitation phase:** Limited Exploitation. The vulnerability is known but shows very limited attacker interest or exploitation activity.
- **CVSS score:** 9.6
- **Public exploit available:** Yes
- **Affected products:** Fortinet FortiWLM
- **Weaknesses:** CWE-23 (Relative Path Traversal); CWE-94 (Improper Control of Generation of Code ('Code Injection'))
- **Tags:** enterprise_software, firewall

## Description

A relative path traversal in Fortinet FortiWLM version 8.6.0 through 8.6.5 and 8.5.0 through 8.5.4 allows attacker to execute unauthorized code or commands via specially crafted web requests.

## CrowdSec analysis

[CVE-2023-34990](https://euvd.enisa.europa.eu/vulnerability/CVE-2023-34990) is a relative path traversal vulnerability in Fortinet FortiWLM versions 8.6.0 through 8.6.5 and 8.5.0 through 8.5.4 which allows attackers to execute unauthorized code or commands by sending specially crafted web requests. This remote code execution flaw could be exploited to gain control over the affected system, potentially leading to data breaches or further network compromise.

CrowdSec has been tracking this vulnerability and its exploits since 17th of June 2025.

CrowdSec has not observed any significant exploitation activity targeting CVE-2023-34990 across its network. As a result, no community-driven trend analysis is available for this vulnerability at this time.

Attackers exploit the `/ems/cgi-bin/ezrf_lighttpd.cgi` endpoint by abusing the `imagename` parameter with directory traversal sequences to access sensitive files on FortiWLM systems.

## Timeline

- 2024-12-18: CVE Published. CVE-2023-34990 is published to NVD.
- 2025-06-17: Rule Released. CrowdSec releases a rule to detect CVE-2023-34990 exploitation attempts against the CrowdSec Network.
- 2025-08-05: CrowdSec First Seen. CrowdSec observes in-the-wild exploitation of CVE-2023-34990 for the first time.

## References

- https://github.com/projectdiscovery/nuclei-templates/blob/main/http/cves/2023/CVE-2023-34990.yaml

## Live exploitation data

The [Live Exploit Tracker page](https://tracker.crowdsec.net/cves/CVE-2023-34990) follows observed exploitation activity for CVE-2023-34990. [Request an API key](https://tracker.crowdsec.net/request-api-key) for full access to its exploitation timeline, attacking IP addresses and blocklists.