SonicWall SMA1000 appliances process Unicode characters incorrectly, creating a flaw that allows an authenticated SSLVPN administrator to skip the AMC TOTP challenge. The result is the loss of the second factor, permitting an attacker with valid credentials to gain full administrative privileges on the appliance without the required time‑based one‑time password. This vulnerability stems from improper handling of Unicode encoding within the SSLVPN authentication flow, effectively nullifying the multi‑factor protection.

All models in the SonicWall SMA1000 series may be impacted, as the advisory does not specify particular firmware or sub‑model versions. Devices should be treated as at risk until a firmware update that corrects the Unicode handling is deployed.

The exploit requires the attacker to possess legitimate administrator credentials, after which the MFA bypass can be triggered remotely via the SSLVPN interface. The EPSS score is not available and the issue is not listed in CISA’s KEV catalog, indicating that the vulnerability is not yet widely known in exploit databases. However, once authenticated, the ability to bypass TOTP grants complete control over the appliance, presenting a high‑severity risk to confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the protected network.