Chained Exploitation Risk: CVE-2025-40602 and CVE-2025-23006 in SonicWall SMA1000

SonicWall has issued a security advisory (SNWLID-2025-0019) regarding a local privilege escalation vulnerability in the SMA1000 appliance management console (AMC). Tracked as CVE-2025-40602, the vulnerability becomes highly dangerous when chained with CVE-2025-23006, enabling full system compromise with root-level remote code execution.

Severity: High

Vulnerability Details

• CVE ID: CVE-2025-40602
• CVSS Score: 6.6
• CWE: CWE-862 (Missing Authorization), CWE-250 (Execution with Unnecessary Privileges)
• Description:
  • The vulnerability results from insufficient authorization in the AMC (Appliance Management Console) of SonicWall SMA1000 appliances.
  • A local attacker with limited privileges could exploit the flaw to escalate privileges to administrative or root levels.
  • While exploitation requires existing access to the system, when combined with CVE-2025-23006, an attacker could bypass authentication and execute arbitrary code remotely, resulting in full system takeover.

Affected Products

• SMA1000: 12.4.3-03093 (platform-hotfix) and earlier versions; 12.5.0-02002 (platform-hotfix) and earlier versions

Exploit Scenarios

• Standalone exploitation: Requires prior local account access (insider threat or lateral movement).
• Chained exploitation:
  • CVE-2025-23006 (RCE, CVSS 9.8) → Gain initial access
  • CVE-2025-40602 → Escalate privileges to root
• This chained attack can yield unauthenticated remote code execution with root privileges on unpatched SMA1000 systems.

Recommendations

1. Immediately upgrade affected SonicWall SMA1000 appliances to:
   12.4.3-03245 (platform-hotfix) or later
   12.5.0-02283 (platform-hotfix) or later
2. Verify that CVE-2025-23006 is patched – it was remediated in build 12.4.3-02854 or higher.
3. Restrict access to the Appliance Management Console (AMC) to trusted administrative networks or VPNs only.
4. Disable AMC and SSH access from the public internet to reduce external exposure.
5. Review all local user accounts and privileges on SMA devices.
6. Revoke unnecessary administrative accounts and ensure least-privilege principles are applied.
7. Implement multi-factor authentication (MFA) for administrative logins wherever possible.

Source:

• https://psirt.global.sonicwall.com/vuln-detail/SNWLID-2025-0019

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