The Register: Thousands of Fortinet instances vulnerable to actively exploited flaw

Source URL: https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/14/fortinet_vulnerability/
Source: The Register
Title: Thousands of Fortinet instances vulnerable to actively exploited flaw

Feedly Summary: No excuses for not patching this nine-month-old issue
More than 86,000 Fortinet instances remain vulnerable to the critical flaw that attackers started exploiting last week, according to Shadowserver’s data.…

AI Summary and Description: Yes

Summary: The text discusses the critical vulnerability CVE-2024-23113 impacting over 86,000 Fortinet instances, which has recently been exploited by attackers. It highlights the severity of the vulnerability, the affected products, and the recommendations for organizations to mitigate risks.

Detailed Description:

– **Vulnerability Overview**: CVE-2024-23113 is a severe remote code execution vulnerability that has been given a CVSS v3 severity rating of 9.8, marking it as highly critical.
– **Scope of Impact**:
– Over 86,000 Fortinet appliances are identified as vulnerable, with the highest concentration in Asia, followed by North America and Europe.
– The exploiting of this vulnerability has only recently garnered attention, despite its disclosure in February.
– **CISA Involvement**:
– The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) added this vulnerability to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, indicating ongoing active exploitation and serious threats to federal agencies.
– Agencies have been given a 21-day window to address the vulnerability, reflecting the urgency of the situation.
– **Potential Impact**:
– Successful exploitation could lead to significant detriments to data confidentiality, system integrity, and service availability.
– The vulnerability does not require privileges or user interaction, emphasizing the ease of exploitation for malicious actors.
– **Mitigation Recommendations**:
– Affected administrators are advised to upgrade to unaffected versions or implement specific mitigations to secure their systems.
– It is suggested to remove fgfm daemon access for vulnerable interfaces, although doing so could hinder certain functionalities such as FortiManager’s discovery of FortiGate devices.

Key Insights:
– The ongoing exploitation of CVE-2024-23113 presents a critical risk for organizations using Fortinet products, especially within sectors that must comply with stringent security standards.
– The necessity for immediate action is underscored by CISA’s involvement, suggesting a broader requirement for vigilance in patch management and vulnerability assessment within the fields related to Information Security and Infrastructure Security.
– This incident serves as a reminder for security professionals to prioritize the monitoring of CVE catalogs and address vulnerabilities promptly to mitigate risks to their infrastructures.