CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2021-22126 — Fortinet Fortiwlc security vulnerability

Medium CVSS 6.7

A use of hard-coded password vulnerability in FortiWLC version 8.5.2 and below, version 8.4.8 and below, version 8.3.3 to 8.3.2, version 8.2.7 to 8.2.6 may allow a local, authenticated attacker to connect to the managed Access Point (Meru AP and FortiAP-U) as root using the default hard-coded username and password.

Severity
Medium
CVSS
6.7 (3.1)
Published
2025-03-17
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
software/application
Weaknesses
CWE-284, CWE-798

Affected products

  • fortinet / fortiwlc
  • fortinet / fortiwlc / 8.2.6
  • fortinet / fortiwlc / 8.2.7
  • fortinet / fortiwlc / 8.3.2
  • fortinet / fortiwlc / 8.3.3

Matched remediation archetype

Authentication bypass and missing authentication

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Check exposure

  • Map every affected endpoint and protocol path, including alternate ports, legacy routes, recovery flows, service accounts, and machine-to-machine access.
  • Confirm which deployments enable the affected authentication mode and whether the interface is reachable from untrusted networks.
  • Review session, token, credential, and proxy trust configuration without attempting account takeover.

Remediate safely

  • Apply the supported fix and centralize fail-closed authentication before protected request handling.
  • Remove default or embedded credentials, rotate affected secrets and sessions, and bind authentication decisions to the intended audience and channel.
  • Add negative tests for alternate routes, malformed or absent credentials, recovery flows, and proxy-derived identity.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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