CVE-2017-5521 — An issue was discovered on NETGEAR R8500, R8300, R7000, R6400, R7300, R7100LG, R6300v2,…¶

Key facts

CVE-2017-5521 is a High (8.1) vulnerability: An issue was discovered on NETGEAR R8500, R8300, R7000, R6400, R7300, R7100LG, R6300v2,…. This entry ships a detection-only PoC and a Docker test lab. It is on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog (added 2022-09-08), confirming active exploitation in the wild.

Actively exploited — on the CISA KEV catalog

CVE-2017-5521 is listed on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog (added 2022-09-08), confirming exploitation in the wild. Federal remediation deadline: 2022-09-29. Prioritise patching and deploy the detection and prevention rules below.


CVE	CVE-2017-5521
Severity	High (8.1)
CISA KEV	Actively exploited (added 2022-09-08)
Detection / prevention	—
PoC	poc.py
Source	2017/CVE-2017-5521/

Details¶

English | 한국어

Description¶

An issue was discovered on NETGEAR R8500, R8300, R7000, R6400, R7300, R7100LG, R6300v2, WNDR3400v3, WNR3500Lv2, R6250, R6700, R6900, and R8000 devices. They are prone to password disclosure via simple crafted requests to the web management server. The bug is exploitable remotely if the remote management option is set, and can also be exploited given access to the router over LAN or WLAN. When trying to access the web panel, a user is asked to authenticate; if the authentication is canceled and password recovery is not enabled, the user is redirected to a page that exposes a password recovery token. If a user supplies the correct token to the page /passwordrecovered.cgi?id=TOKEN (and password recovery is not enabled), they will receive the admin password for the router. If password recovery is set the exploit will fail, as it will ask the user for the recovery questions that were previously set when enabling that feature. This is persistent (even after disabling the recovery option, the exploit will fail) because the router will ask for the security questions.

Vulnerability Details¶

Property	Value
CVE ID	CVE-2017-5521
CVSS Score	8.1

Proof of Concept¶

Download¶

# Download PoC script
curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/fankh/vulnerability-poc/main/2017/CVE-2017-5521/poc.py

Usage¶

# Run PoC against target
python3 poc.py --target <TARGET_URL>

# With authentication
python3 poc.py --target <TARGET_URL> --username <USER> --password <PASS>

⚠️ Warning: This PoC is for authorized security testing only. It uses detection-only techniques and does not exploit or damage target systems.

Test Lab¶

This repository includes a Docker-based test environment with both vulnerable and patched applications.

Quick Start¶

# Clone and navigate to CVE directory
cd CVE-2017-5521

# Start both applications
docker-compose up -d

# Run tests
./run-tests.sh    # Linux/Mac
./run-tests.ps1   # Windows PowerShell

Application Endpoints¶

Application	URL	Status
Vulnerable App	http://localhost:8080	Shows vulnerability
Patched App	http://localhost:8081	Demonstrates fix

Directory Structure¶

├── README.md           # English documentation
├── README_KO.md        # Korean documentation
├── poc.py              # PoC detection script
├── docker-compose.yml  # Container orchestration
├── run-tests.sh        # Linux/Mac test runner
├── run-tests.ps1       # Windows test runner
├── vulnerable-app/     # Vulnerable version
│   ├── app.py
│   ├── Dockerfile
│   └── requirements.txt
└── patched-app/        # Fixed version
    ├── app.py
    ├── Dockerfile
    └── requirements.txt

References¶

http://kb.netgear.com/30632/Web-GUI-Password-Recovery-and-Exposure-Security-Vulnerability
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/95457
https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/41205/
http://kb.netgear.com/30632/Web-GUI-Password-Recovery-and-Exposure-Security-Vulnerability
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/95457
https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/41205/
https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2017-5521

Generated by PoC Generator on 2026-07-30T20:51:21.655422692

Frequently asked questions¶

What is CVE-2017-5521?¶

CVE-2017-5521 is a High (8.1) vulnerability: An issue was discovered on NETGEAR R8500, R8300, R7000, R6400, R7300, R7100LG, R6300v2,…. This entry ships a detection-only PoC and a Docker test lab. It is on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog (added 2022-09-08), confirming active exploitation in the wild.

How do I detect CVE-2017-5521?¶

Run the detection-only PoC included with this entry against your Docker test lab to confirm whether a target is affected; pair it with your own IDS logging.

How do I block or mitigate CVE-2017-5521?¶

Upgrade to a fixed version per the vendor advisory; the NVD record lists the affected versions. Use the included PoC to verify your remediation.

Is CVE-2017-5521 actively exploited?¶

Yes. CVE-2017-5521 is on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, added 2022-09-08, which means it has been exploited in the wild. CISA set a federal remediation deadline of 2022-09-29. Prioritise patching and deploy the detection and prevention rules above.

For authorized security testing and research only. See the full source and NVD record.