CVE-2020-6648: 
FortiOS vulnerability analysis and mitigation

A cleartext storage of sensitive information vulnerability (CVE-2020-6648) was discovered in FortiOS command line interface and FortiProxy. The vulnerability affects FortiOS versions 6.2.4 and earlier, and FortiProxy versions 2.0.0, 1.2.9 and earlier. This vulnerability was disclosed on October 19, 2020, and was reported by security researcher Shaun Farrow (Fortinet Advisory).

The vulnerability allows an authenticated attacker to obtain sensitive information such as user passwords by connecting to FortiGate CLI and executing the 'diag sys ha checksum show' command. The vulnerability has been assigned a CVSS v3.1 base score of 6.5 (Medium) by NIST with a vector string of CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N. The vulnerability is classified as CWE-312 (Cleartext Storage of Sensitive Information) (NVD).

The exploitation of this vulnerability could lead to unauthorized access to sensitive information, specifically user passwords, which could potentially compromise system security. The impact is primarily focused on confidentiality, with no direct effect on system integrity or availability (Fortinet Advisory).

The vulnerability requires authentication to exploit, as the attacker needs to have access to the FortiGate CLI. The attack complexity is considered low, as it only requires executing a specific command (NVD).

Fortinet has released patches to address this vulnerability. Users are advised to upgrade to FortiOS version 6.4.0 or above, FortiOS version 6.2.5 or above, or FortiOS version 6.0.12 or above, depending on their current version (Fortinet Advisory).