Threats / SonicWall / CVE-2021-20028
CVE-2021-20028
· EUVD no mirror located
· GCVE no mirror located
Verified 2026-08-04
SonicWall Secure Remote Access (SRA) vulnerability
SonicWall Secure Remote Access (SRA) products are vulnerable to SQL injection via improper neutralization of SQL commands, enabling remote code execution and data exfiltration.
Verdict
Today item, not a backlog item.
A SQL injection vulnerability in SonicWall SRA allows unauthenticated attackers to execute arbitrary SQL queries, bypass authentication, and gain unauthorized access to sensitive data. Active exploitation and ransomware deployment have been observed.
CISA KEV Yes · 2022-03-285Ransomware use Flagged5EPSS 0.29866 (verify live)6CVSS 9.8 (CISA)4CISA SSVC Exploitation: active · Automatable: yes · Impact: total4
01
Is it exploitable?
— the evidence, ranked above the scoreReported exploitation
438 independent public reports of in-the-wild exploitation are cataloged.Distinct reporting sources (vendor, incident response, government); open them for the underlying claims.
Exploited in the wild
Listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2022-03-28), flagged for known ransomware use.
Probability (EPSS)
EPSS 0.29866 — modeled likelihood of exploitation activity.EPSS is a daily-changing model output — open the source for today's value.
Severity / affected
CVSS 9.8 (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H) · Affected: SonicWall, Secure Remote Access (SRA). Confirm exact fixed builds in the vendor advisory.CVSS — CISA-assigned via the ADP container (CVE.org), version 3.1; the CNA left no metrics, so CISA's own score is used ahead of NVD.
Weakness (CWE)
Mapped to CWE-89 SQL Injection — weakness family: Injection.CWE — CNA-assigned (CVE.org); the weakness class drives how the flaw is exploited.
CISA SSVC (triage disposition)
Exploitation: active · Automatable: yes · Technical Impact: totalCISA's own stakeholder-specific triage inputs, published in the CVE record (CISA Coordinator role). NOTE: this is CISA's three decision points; the final Act/Attend/Track decision also requires a Mission & Well-being input not published here, so no overall decision is asserted.
Currency of the record
CISA added this to its KEV catalog 236 days after the CVE record was published.KEV lag = CISA-KEV dateAdded − CVE.org datePublished; a floor on how long the known-exploited flaw sat in the public record before the federal catalog listed it. Severity/weakness here is CNA- or CISA-assigned (current at disclosure), independent of NVD's analysis backlog.
02
Who’s exploiting it?
— attribution turns risk into urgencyAttribution not established
No confirmed (advisory-backed) threat-actor attribution is established for this record. Absence of a named actor is not absence of compromise — see Coverage & confidence.
03
Why it matters
— the attack path, told twice: adversary, then board1
Front door — unauthenticated access narrative 1
Attacker
I craft malicious SQL payloads in application input fields to bypass authentication and access the backend database.
Business
Attackers gain unauthorized access to remote access infrastructure, enabling lateral movement into corporate networks.
2
Keys to the kingdom — privilege/identity takeover narrative 2
Attacker
I extract sensitive credentials and configuration data from the compromised database to escalate privileges.
Business
Stolen credentials expose VPN access, employee identities, and system configurations to further compromise.
3
Lateral reach — past segmentation narrative 3
Attacker
I deploy ransomware payloads across the network using the compromised remote access gateway as an entry point.
Business
Critical business systems are encrypted and held for ransom, disrupting operations and causing financial loss.
04
What to do
— defensible action- Remediate per the vendor advisory — confirm the fixed build for your version and verify exposure.1
Say it to the boardA vulnerability with this evidence profile is a defensible budget line, not a backlog ticket — fund the change against the proof above.
05