CVE-2023-41840 — A untrusted search path vulnerability in Fortinet FortiClientWindows 7

A untrusted search path vulnerability in Fortinet FortiClientWindows 7.0.9 allows an attacker to perform a DLL Hijack attack via a malicious OpenSSL engine library in the search path.

01What is this vulnerability?

A untrusted search path vulnerability in Fortinet FortiClientWindows 7.0.9 allows an attacker to perform a DLL Hijack attack via a malicious OpenSSL engine library in the search path.

02Affected products

03Active exploitation status

Not currently listed on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog. EPSS is the best forward-looking signal — see the EPSS row above.

04Recommended remediation

• Patch to a fixed version listed in the vendor advisory (see references below).
• Mitigate with WAF rules, network egress filters, or feature flags where the patch is not yet available.
• Hunt historical logs for exploitation indicators — see Detection signatures below.

05Technical details

For the full vendor write-up, exploit chains, and reference implementations, see the references list in section 09.

06Detection signatures

Open the Sigma generator with a pre-filled prompt for this CVE to draft a starting detection in your stack of choice:

Open in Sigma generator →

07Related CVEs

No directly-cited follow-up CVEs in the KB record for this advisory. The references list in section 09 carries the vendor cross-references.

08Timeline

• Published: 2023-11-14T18:04:55.737Z
• Last modified: 2025-12-16T18:23:22.564Z

09References

• fortiguard.com — https://fortiguard.com/psirt/FG-IR-23-274