SonicWall NSM: Improper access control in export settings
Summary
SonicWall Network Security Manager (NSM) on-prem contains an improper access control flaw (CWE-863) in its export settings. A remote attacker with a valid low-privilege NSM account and no user interaction could obtain sensitive information, potentially escalate to administrator and intercept other users' communications. Because NSM manages firewall policies and credentials, the impact on the whole estate could be high; the related flaw CVE-2026-100232 (OS command injection, high privileges required) is reported as a possible chaining risk.
Affected
- SonicWall NSM on-prem 4.3.1 and earlier
- On-prem deployments on VMware, Hyper-V, Azure and KVM
- NSM SaaS is not affected
Fixed in
- NSM 4.4.0 or higher (per secondary reporting; verify on the vendor advisory SNWLID-2026-0018 before planning changes)
Workaround
- Vendor: none listed; upgrading is the only remedy.
- Third-party interim advice (not from the vendor): restrict access to the NSM export settings to trusted users and monitor for unusual access.
Exploitation
- No known exploitation; not listed in CISA KEV.
- CISA SSVC: exploitation none, automatable no, technical impact total.
- No public proof of concept found.
Our recommendation
- Check whether you run on-prem NSM version 4.3.1 or earlier.
- Review NSM accounts and remove unneeded ones.
- Restrict access to the management interface to admin networks.
- Monitor for unusual export activity.
- Plan the upgrade to 4.4.0 or later after verifying it on the SonicWall advisory.
Public exploits
PoC-in-GitHub, Metasploit and Exploit-DB list nothing for this CVE.
Research sources
- SonicWall PSIRT advisory SNWLID-2026-0018 psirt.global.sonicwall.com
- GBHackers: SonicWall NSM security flaws gbhackers.com
- OpenCVE: CVE-2026-96540 app.opencve.io
- SecurityOnline: SonicWall NSM on-prem vulnerabilities securityonline.info
- Strix AI: CVE-2026-96540 www.strix.ai
Researched and written up in English and German by an AI (Claude by Anthropic) based on NVD, CISA, EPSS and the sources listed. The vendor information is authoritative. Researched on 31 Oct 2026, 16:37.
Original description (NVD)
An improper access control vulnerability has been identified in the SonicWall Network Security Manager (NSM) on-prem in export settings, potentially allowing a remote authenticated attacker to obtain sensitive information. This may allow the attacker to escalate privileges to an administrator or to intercept communications of other users of the NSM instance.
NVD references (1)
Sources
The tracker combines official, freely usable data sources – updated continuously:
- NVD (NIST) – CVEs, rating (CVSS), affected products
- CISA KEV – vulnerabilities confirmed by CISA as actively exploited
- CISA Vulnrichment – CISA assessment (SSVC) in the official CVE record
- FIRST EPSS – probability of exploitation
- Microsoft MSRC – Patch Tuesday: vulnerabilities, severity, updates
- PoC-in-GitHub – public proof-of-concept repositories
- Metasploit (Rapid7) – modules of the Metasploit Framework
- Exploit-DB (OffSec) – archive of public exploits (links only)
- Patch days: official vendor pages (linked per vendor) (Vendor patch days)
This product uses data from the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. EPSS data © FIRST.org.
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