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Fortinet: Patched Critical Flaw May Have Been Exploited
Users urged to apply updates to FortiOS SSL-VPN after attackers may have leveraged a recently discovered vulnerability in attacks against government, manufacturing, and critical infrastructure organizations.
Attackers may have exploited a flaw in Fortinet’s FortiOS SSL-VPN in “a limited number of cases” that affected users in government, manufacturing, and critical infrastructure sectors.
Fortinet issued a fix for the vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2023-27997/FG-IR-23-097) and rated as critical, that it’s urging customers to apply as they “monitor the situation,” the company said in a blog post published this week.
Exploitation of the flaw can produce “data loss and OS and file corruption” for victims, which is why it’s imperative for customers affected to update systems, according to Fortinet.
“If the customer has SSL-VPN enabled, Fortinet is advising customers to take immediate action to upgrade to the most recent firmware release,” Carl Windsor, Fortinet’s senior vice president, product technology, wrote in the post. “If the customer is not operating SSL-VPN the risk of this issue is mitigated — however, Fortinet still recommends upgrading.”
The heap-based buffer overflow, pre-authentication vulnerability affects FortiOS and FortiProxy SSL-VPN and can allow unauthenticated attackers to gain remote code execution (RCE) via maliciously crafted requests, according to Fortinet. FortiOS firmware versions 6.0.17, 6.2.15, 6.4.13, 7.0.12, and 7.2.5 — released by the vendor on Friday — patch the vulnerability.
Fortinet found the flaw in an audit of its SSL-VPN platform after the rampant exploitation of another vulnerability, CVE-2022-42475 — which upon discovery was a zero-day bug — in January.
“This audit, together with a responsible disclosure from a third-party researcher, led to the identification of certain issues that have been remediated in the current firmware releases,” Windsor wrote.
Potential Links to Volt Typhoon
Though attackers used a previously identified Fortinet vulnerability — FG-IR-22-377/CVE-2022-40684 — in the recently discovered Volt Typhoon campaign against US criticial infrastructure targets, Fortinet so far is not conclusively linking CVE-2023-27997 to this series of attacks, the company said in the post.
However, Fortinet claimed this does not preclude its use in the campaign, whether it’s currently being exploited, or if attackers will leverage it in the future.
“Fortinet expects all threat actors, including those behind the Volt Typhoon campaign, to continue to exploit unpatched vulnerabilities in widely used software and devices,” Windsor wrote.
Discovered by Microsoft, Volt Typhoon is a series of attacks in which China-sponsored threat actors established persistent access within telecom networks and other critical infrastructure targets in the US.
Volt Typhoon attackers used CVE-2022-40684 — an authentication bypass vulnerability found in Fortinet FortiOS and FortiProxy — for initial access, Fortinet confirmed. Indeed, Internet-facing Fortinet devices are a popular target for various threat actors as a way to gain a foothold into enterprise networks.
Specifically, Fortinet researchers discovered admin accounts named “fortinet-tech-support” and “fortigate-tech-support” in customer devices related to the Volt Typhoon campaign, the company said.
“Our own research, conducted in collaboration with our customers, has identified that the Volt Typhoon campaign uses a variety of tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) to gain access to networks, including a widely used technique known as ‘living off the land’ to evade detection,” Windsor wrote.
Mitigations Beyond Patching
While applying product updates is the key way to avoid compromise, Fortinet made other suggestions to help affected organizations resolve the issue. One is to review systems for evidence of exploitation of previous Fortinet vulnerabilities, such as the one exploited by Volt Typhoon, the company said.
Minimizing the attack surface by disabling unused features and managing devices via an out-of-band method wherever possible can also help companies avoid being targeted in attacks that exploit existing vulnerabilities, according to Fortinet.
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Fortinet FortiOS suffers from an out of bounds write vulnerability. Affected includes Fortinet FortiOS versions 7.4.0 through 7.4.2, 7.2.0 through 7.2.6, 7.0.0 through 7.0.13, 6.4.0 through 6.4.14, 6.2.0 through 6.2.15, 6.0.0 through 6.0.17, FortiProxy versions 7.4.0 through 7.4.2, 7.2.0 through 7.2.8, 7.0.0 through 7.0.14, 2.0.0 through 2.0.13, 1.2.0 through 1.2.13, 1.1.0 through 1.1.6, and 1.0.0 through 1.0.7.
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A heap-based buffer overflow vulnerability [CWE-122] in FortiOS version 7.2.4 and below, version 7.0.11 and below, version 6.4.12 and below, version 6.0.16 and below and FortiProxy version 7.2.3 and below, version 7.0.9 and below, version 2.0.12 and below, version 1.2 all versions, version 1.1 all versions SSL-VPN may allow a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code or commands via specifically crafted requests.
Fortinet on Monday disclosed that a newly patched critical flaw impacting FortiOS and FortiProxy may have been "exploited in a limited number of cases" in attacks targeting government, manufacturing, and critical infrastructure sectors. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2023-27997 (CVSS score: 9.2), concerns a heap-based buffer overflow vulnerability in FortiOS and FortiProxy SSL-VPN that could
Fortinet on Monday disclosed that a newly patched critical flaw impacting FortiOS and FortiProxy may have been "exploited in a limited number of cases" in attacks targeting government, manufacturing, and critical infrastructure sectors. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2023-27997 (CVSS score: 9.2), concerns a heap-based buffer overflow vulnerability in FortiOS and FortiProxy SSL-VPN that could
Fortinet has released patches to address a critical security flaw in its FortiGate firewalls that could be abused by a threat actor to achieve remote code execution. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2023-27997, is "reachable pre-authentication, on every SSL VPN appliance," Lexfo Security researcher Charles Fol, who discovered and reported the flaw, said in a tweet over the weekend. Details
Fortinet FortiOS, FortiProxy, and FortiSwitchManager version 7.2.1 suffers from a authentication bypass vulnerability.
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Chinese and Russian cyber-spies actively targeting security vulnerability
This Metasploit module exploits an authentication bypass vulnerability in the Fortinet FortiOS, FortiProxy, and FortiSwitchManager API to gain access to a chosen account and then adds an SSH key to the authorized_keys file of the chosen account, allowing you to login to the system with the chosen account. Successful exploitation results in remote code execution.
An authentication bypass using an alternate path or channel [CWE-288] in Fortinet FortiOS version 7.2.0 through 7.2.1 and 7.0.0 through 7.0.6, FortiProxy version 7.2.0 and version 7.0.0 through 7.0.6 and FortiSwitchManager version 7.2.0 and 7.0.0 allows an unauthenticated atttacker to perform operations on the administrative interface via specially crafted HTTP or HTTPS requests.
A proof-of-concept (PoC) exploit code has been made available for the recently disclosed critical security flaw affecting Fortinet FortiOS, FortiProxy, and FortiSwitchManager, making it imperative that users move quickly to apply the patches. "FortiOS exposes a management web portal that allows a user to configure the system," Horizon3.ai researcher James Horseman said. "Additionally, a user can
Fortinet on Monday revealed that the newly patched critical security vulnerability impacting its firewall and proxy products is being actively exploited in the wild. Tracked as CVE-2022-40684 (CVSS score: 9.6), the flaw relates to an authentication bypass in FortiOS, FortiProxy, and FortiSwitchManager that could allow a remote attacker to perform unauthorized operations on the administrative
Fortinet has privately warned its customers of a security flaw affecting FortiGate firewalls and FortiProxy web proxies that could potentially allow an attacker to perform unauthorized actions on susceptible devices. Tracked as CVE-2022-40684, the high-severity flaw relates to an authentication bypass vulnerability that could permit an unauthenticated adversary to perform arbitrary operations on
The bug is under active exploitation; Fortinet issued a customer advisory urging customers to apply its update immediately.