Critical security alert: If you haven’t patched old Fortinet VPN vulnerability, assume your network is compromised


Cyber criminals and nation-state cyber-espionage operations are actively scanning for unpatched vulnerabilities in Fortinet VPNs; organisations that use Fortigate firewalls on their network, and have yet to apply a critical security update released almost two years ago, should assume they’ve been compromised and act accordingly.

The alert from the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) follows a report by Kaspersky detailing how cyber criminals are exploiting a Fortinet VPN vulnerability (CVE-2018-13379) to distribute ransomware by exploiting unpatched systems and remotely accessing usernames and passwords, allowing them to manually undertake activity on the network.

he NCSC – along with CISA and the FBI – has also warned that Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) nation-state hacking groups are still actively scanning for unpatched CVE-2018-13379 vulnerabilities as a means of gaining access to networks for cyber-espionage campaigns.

Read more…
Source: ZDNet