Skip to content
Weekly Signal
Live intelligence Updated 20 Aug 2026 · 23:28 UTC

Sophos · SFOS

CVE-2020-12271

Sophos SFOS SQL Injection Vulnerability

Recommended action

Validate affected assets and exposure now, then remediate on an accelerated schedule. Vendor advisory from news.sophos.com

View response plan
CVSS9.8
EPSS42.4%
KEVYes
ExploitationConfirmed exploitation
RemediationExplicit patch identified ↓

Assessment

Why it matters

CISA lists this vulnerability as known to be exploited; exploitation is confirmed; EPSS is 42.4%; technical severity is CVSS 9.8.

A SQL injection issue was found in SFOS 17.0, 17.1, 17.5, and 18.0 before 2020-04-25 on Sophos XG Firewall devices, as exploited in the wild in April 2020. This affected devices configured with either the administration (HTTPS) service or the User Portal exposed on the WAN zone. A successful attack may have caused remote code execution that exfiltrated usernames and hashed passwords for the local device admin(s), portal admins, and user accounts used for remote access (but not external Active Directory or LDAP passwords)

Who should care

  • Teams operating SFOS
  • Vulnerability and exposure management teams
  • Security operations teams monitoring exploitation activity

Response plan

What I would do

  1. Confirm whether SFOS is present in the environment.
  2. Identify affected versions and establish whether vulnerable services are exposed or reachable.
  3. Vendor advisory from news.sophos.com
  4. Review relevant security telemetry for evidence of attempted or successful exploitation.
  5. Document the remediation decision and track it to verified completion.

Treatment intelligence

Remediation intelligence

Not yet verified

Vendor sources are listed before government and third-party guidance. Confirm product applicability and change prerequisites before deployment.

Verification noteAutomated link verification has not completed for this guidance yet.

Technical details

CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CWE
CWE-89
Affected versions
Sophos SFOS (Version 17.0 | Version 17.1 | Version 17.5 | Version 18.0)
Fixed versions
No explicit fixed version is currently recorded.
Published
27 April 2020
Attack vector
Network
Privileges required
None
User interaction
None

Signal timeline

  1. CVE published
  2. Added to CISA KEV
  3. Latest EPSS score: 42.4%
  4. Signal calculated at 81

External references

Live public intelligence This assessment combines public-source evidence. Validate the affected product, version and exposure against your own environment before making a risk decision.