Fortinet products allow unauthenticated remote code execution
Fortinet disclosed critical authentication bypass vulnerabilities in FortiOS, FortiProxy, and FortiSwitchManager allowing unauthenticated remote attackers to perform arbitrary operations.
Sourceipa.go.jp — open the original
What to check
- Applies to
- The 1 CVE named below. Whether you run an affected version is not assessed: check the versions the source lists.
- Exploitation
- CISA lists CVE-2022-40684 as exploited in the wild.
The Japan Information-technology Promotion Agency (IPA) issued an alert regarding authentication bypass vulnerabilities in Fortinet FortiOS, FortiProxy, and FortiSwitchManager products. The vulnerabilities allow unauthenticated remote attackers to send crafted HTTP or HTTPS requests to the management interface and perform arbitrary operations on affected systems.
Fortinet has confirmed active exploitation attempts in the wild, indicating these vulnerabilities are being weaponized by threat actors. The advisory emphasizes the urgency of implementing patches due to the observed attacks and the potential for widespread impact.
Fortinet has released patched versions and recommends either updating to the latest version or implementing workarounds including disabling HTTP/HTTPS administrative interface access or restricting access to trusted internal IP addresses only. Organizations should prioritize remediation given the combination of critical severity, remote exploitability without authentication, and confirmed in-the-wild exploitation.
Mentioned in this report
Detection guidance
FortiOS Admin Management Interface Accessed From External/WAN Interface
A behavioural hunt for the technique in general, not a signature for the CVEs this report names.
Detects traffic reaching the FortiOS/FortiProxy HTTP/HTTPS administrative interface from the WAN-facing interface, consistent with exploitation of unauthenticated management-interface auth bypass vulnerabilities. Auto-generated starting point — validate and tune in your environment before deploying. IOC matches can false-positive on shared infrastructure and decay as adversary infrastructure rotates.
title: FortiOS Admin Interface Reached From WAN Interface
id: 80b07db2-e707-527d-bad9-4fe55b786366
status: experimental
description: 'Detects firewall traffic logs where the FortiOS/FortiProxy/FortiSwitchManager
administrative HTTP/HTTPS interface (typically bound to the internal management
daemon on TCP 443/80 or a custom admin port) is reached from an external/WAN-facing
interface. This pattern is consistent with attempted exploitation of authentication
bypass vulnerabilities affecting the management interface where it should normally
only be reachable from trusted internal networks.
'
references:
- https://www.ipa.go.jp/
author: Vorant
tags:
- attack.t1190
logsource:
category: firewall
detection:
selection:
dstport:
- 443
- 80
srcintf: wan1
action: accept
admin_service:
service|contains:
- HTTPS
- HTTP
- admin
filter:
srcip|cidr:
- 10.0.0.0/8
- 172.16.0.0/12
- 192.168.0.0/16
condition: selection and admin_service and not filter
falsepositives:
- Legitimate remote administration from an authorized management VPN terminated on
the WAN interface
- Misconfigured logging that tags internal management VLANs as WAN interface
level: medium
Behavioural rules are generated from public reporting — validate in your environment before deploying.
Source reporting: https://www.ipa.go.jp/archive/security/security-alert/2022/alert20221011.html
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