# SonicWall SonicOS improper access control exploited by Akira

Published: 2026-06-09 · Severity: severe · Sectors: defense, government-national, financial-services, healthcare, technology
Canonical: https://vorant.io/reports/671a3536-e046-56d5-9423-101d9fae1393/sonicwall-sonicos-improper-access-control-exploited-by-akira

> Active exploitation of SonicWall firewall management and SSLVPN access control flaw linked to Akira ransomware campaigns targeting Gen 7 devices.

A critical improper access control vulnerability in SonicWall SonicOS management access and SSLVPN (CVE-2024-40766) is being actively exploited in the wild. SonicWall reports the vulnerability affects SOHO Gen 5 (5.9.2.14-12o and older), Gen 6 (6.5.4.14-109n and older), and Gen 7 firewalls (7.0.1-5035 and older). Recent 2025 threat activity has documented targeted attacks against Gen 7 SonicWall firewalls with SSLVPN enabled, directly linked to Akira ransomware campaigns. Attackers have exploited migrated local accounts with unchanged passwords to gain initial access to affected firewalls. Successful exploitation allows unauthorized resource access and administrative privileges, potentially enabling attackers to view, change, or delete data and cause denial of service by crashing the firewall.

Defenders must immediately patch to SonicWall firmware 7.3.0 or later for Gen 7 devices, reset all local SSLVPN user account passwords—particularly those migrated from Gen 6 to Gen 7—enforce multi-factor authentication, and remove unused accounts. The vulnerability exploits improper access control in a public-facing application surface and serves as an initial access vector for ransomware deployment. Organizations running affected SonicWall generations should prioritize patching and credential hygiene to prevent ransomware intrusion.

## Mentioned in this report

- Vulnerabilities: CVE-2024-40766 (KEV)
- Threat actors: Akira
- Malware: Akira

Source reporting: https://www.cisecurity.org/advisory/a-vulnerability-in-sonicwall-sonicos-management-access-and-sslvpn-could-allow-for-unauthorized-access_2024-097

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