Detect CVE-2025-40602 - SonicWall SMA1000 Missing Authorization Exploitation in Splunk
Detects exploitation attempts targeting CVE-2025-40602, a missing authorization vulnerability (CWE-862) combined with execution with unnecessary privileges (CWE-250) in SonicWall SMA1000 appliances. This KEV-listed vulnerability allows unauthenticated or insufficiently privileged attackers to access restricted resources or execute privileged operations. Detection focuses on anomalous HTTP requests to SMA1000 management interfaces, unexpected authentication bypass patterns, and post-exploitation activity indicative of privilege escalation on SMA gateway infrastructure.
MITRE ATT&CK
SPL Detection Query
index=network sourcetype IN ("sonicwall", "sonicwall:sma", "cisco:asa", "pan:traffic", "firewall")
| where dest_port IN ("443", "8443", "80", "8080")
| eval is_sma_path=if(match(uri_path, "(?i)/(appliance|management|admin|api|vpn|config)"), 1, 0)
| where is_sma_path=1
| eval is_success=if(status IN ("200","201","204"), 1, 0)
| eval is_auth_bypass=if(status IN ("200","201") AND match(uri_path, "(?i)/(admin|management|config|api)"), 1, 0)
| stats count AS total_requests, sum(is_success) AS successful_requests, sum(is_auth_bypass) AS potential_bypasses, dc(uri_path) AS distinct_paths, values(uri_path) AS paths_accessed, values(status) AS status_codes BY src_ip, dest_ip, _time span=5m
| where total_requests >= 5 OR potential_bypasses >= 1
| eval risk_score=case(potential_bypasses >= 3 AND distinct_paths >= 5, "HIGH", potential_bypasses >= 1 AND distinct_paths >= 2, "MEDIUM", 1=1, "LOW")
| table _time, src_ip, dest_ip, total_requests, successful_requests, potential_bypasses, distinct_paths, paths_accessed, status_codes, risk_score
| sort - potential_bypasses, total_requestsDetects SonicWall SMA1000 missing authorization exploitation by identifying unusual access patterns to privileged endpoints, focusing on successful HTTP responses to administrative paths and repeated probing behavior from single source IPs.
Data Sources
Required Sourcetypes
False Positives & Tuning
- Authorized administrators running scripts or automation against the SMA1000 management interface
- Penetration testing or authorized red team exercises targeting SMA1000 infrastructure
- Backup or configuration management systems that regularly access the SMA1000 API
- Network monitoring solutions performing availability checks across multiple SMA1000 endpoints
Other platforms for CVE-2025-40602
Testing Methodology
Validate this detection against 3 adversary techniques from Atomic Red Team. Each test below lists the behaviour to exercise and the telemetry you should expect to see. Executable commands and cleanup steps are available with Pro.
- Test 1SMA1000 Admin Endpoint Probe - Authorization Bypass Simulation
Expected signal: Network logs showing HTTP GET requests from the test host to the SMA1000 target IP on port 443, with URL paths matching /appliance/, /management/, /admin/, and /api/. HTTP response codes of 200 on any path indicate potential missing authorization.
- Test 2SMA1000 Configuration Extraction via Unauthorized API Access
Expected signal: Network logs showing HTTP GET requests to multiple /api/v1/ and /appliance/ paths with JSON Accept headers, followed by data transfer bytes indicating response body content was returned. File creation events in /tmp/sma1000_test/ on the attacking host.
- Test 3SMA1000 Privilege Escalation Test via Unauthenticated Admin Action
Expected signal: Network logs showing HTTP POST request to /api/v1/users endpoint with JSON body containing user creation parameters. If vulnerable, response body will contain user object with assigned ID. Authentication logs on SMA1000 should NOT show a preceding valid authentication event from the source IP.
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