Hazard

Is CVE-2022-23176 being exploited?

Confirmed exploited in the wild

CISA has evidence of active exploitation. This is not theoretical risk — someone has already used it against someone.

WatchGuard Firebox and XTM Privilege Escalation Vulnerability

WatchGuard · Firebox and XTM

CVSS 8.8 EPSS 13% no public exploit indexed Fix deadline passed 2 May 2022

What it is

WatchGuard Firebox and XTM appliances allow a remote attacker with unprivileged credentials to access the system with a privileged management session via exposed management access.

Why we say that

  • CISA's federal remediation deadline (2022-05-02) has passed
  • Listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalogue

Every line above comes from a named public source. Where the evidence is thin, we say so rather than inventing confidence — see methodology.

What to do

Apply updates per vendor instructions.

What it costs when this goes wrong

This is where UK enforcement meets the vulnerability record. Where an unfixed vulnerability leads to a breach, the ICO treats it as a security failure under UK GDPR. Recent cases:

All UK cases caused by unpatched software →