SonicWall · SonicWall Email Security
CVE-2021-20023
SonicWall Email Security Path Traversal Vulnerability
What it is
SonicWall Email Security version 10.0.9.x contains a vulnerability that allows a post-authenticated attacker to read an arbitrary file on the remote host.
CISA: SonicWall Email Security contains a path traversal vulnerability that allows a post-authenticated attacker to read files on the remote host. This vulnerability has known usage in a SonicWall Email Security exploit chain along with CVE-2021-20021 and CVE-2021-20022 to achieve privilege escalation.
What to do
Apply updates per vendor instructions.
Deadline for US federal agencies: November 17, 2021
- Added to the CISA list
- November 3, 2021
- Published
- April 20, 2021
- Severity
- Medium 4.9 CVSS 3.1
- Chance of attacks in the next 30 days (EPSS)
- 52% in the top 1.1% of all known vulnerabilities
- Weakness
- CWE-22
- More details
- NVD · CVE.org · CISA
All references (1)
More exploited flaws from SonicWall
| Added | Vulnerability | Product | Severity | Attack chance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nov 3, 2021 | Email Security Improper Privilege Management | SonicWall Email Security | Critical 9.8 | 89% |
| Nov 3, 2021 | Email Security Unrestricted Upload of File | SonicWall Email Security | High 7.2 | 17% |
| Sep 2, 2026 | Server-Side Request Forgery | SMA1000 Appliances | Critical 10.0 | 8.0% |
| Sep 2, 2026 | OS Command Injection | SMA1000 Appliances | High 7.8 | 9.9% |
| Jul 14, 2026 | Server-Side Request Forgery | SMA1000 Appliances | Critical 10.0 | 6.8% |
| Jul 14, 2026 | Code Injection | SMA1000 Appliances | High 7.2 | 12% |
| Dec 17, 2025 | SMA1000 Missing Authorization | SMA1000 appliance | Medium 6.6 | 2.8% |
| May 1, 2025 | OS Command Injection | SMA100 Appliances | High 7.2 | 76% |
Sources: Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (CISA, public domain), CVE records (cve.org) and EPSS (FIRST). The chance of attacks is the EPSS estimate that someone will try to exploit the flaw in the next 30 days.