A brand new hacking group has leaked the configuration information, IP addresses, and VPN credentials for over 15,000 FortiGate units free of charge on the darkish net, exposing an excessive amount of delicate technical data to different cybercriminals.
The information was leaked by the “Belsen Group,” a brand new hacking group first showing on social media and cybercrime boards this month. To advertise themselves, the Belsen Group has created a Tor web site the place they launched the FortiGate information dump free of charge for use by different risk actors.
“In the beginning of the yr, and as a optimistic begin for us, and so as to solidify the title of our group in your reminiscence, we’re proud to announce our first official operation: Can be revealed of delicate information from over 15,000 targets worldwide (each governmental and personal sectors) which have been hacked and their information extracted,” reads a hacking discussion board submit.
The FortiGate leak consists of a 1.6 GB archive containing folders ordered by nation. Every folder incorporates additional subfolders for every FortiGate’s IP deal with in that nation.
In line with cybersecurity knowledgeable Kevin Beaumont, every IP deal with has a configuration.conf (Fortigate config dump) and a vpn-passwords.txt file, with a few of the passwords in plain textual content. The configs additionally include delicate data, akin to personal keys and firewall guidelines.
In a weblog submit in regards to the FortiGate leak, Beaumont says that the leak is believed to be linked to a 2022 zero-day tracked as CVE-2022–40684 that was exploited in assaults earlier than a repair was launched.
“I’ve finished incident response on one machine at a sufferer org, and exploitation was certainly through CVE-2022–40684 primarily based on artefacts on the machine. I’ve additionally been in a position to confirm the usernames and password seen within the dump matches the small print on the machine,” explains Beaumont.
“The information seems to have been assembled in October 2022, as a zero day vuln. For some cause, the info dump of config has been launched right this moment, simply over 2 years later.”
In 2022, Fortinet warned that risk actors have been exploiting a zero-day tracked as CVE-2022–40684 to obtain config information from focused FortiGate units after which add a malicious super_admin account referred to as ‘fortigate-tech-support’.
German information website Heise analyzed the info leak and likewise stated that it was gathered in 2022, with all units using FortiOS firmware 7.0.0-7.0.6 or 7.2.0-7.2.2.
“All units have been outfitted with FortiOS 7.0.0-7.0.6 or 7.2.0-7.2.2, most with model 7.2.0. We didn’t discover any FortiOS model within the information trove that was newer than model 7.2.2, launched on October 3, 2022,” Heise reported.
Nonetheless, FortiOS 7.2.2 fastened the CVE-2022–40684 flaw, so it will be unclear how units working that model may very well be exploited with this vulnerability.
Though these configuration information have been collected in 2022, Beaumont warns that they nonetheless expose lots of delicate details about a community’s defenses.
This consists of firewall guidelines and credentials that, if not modified on the time, must be modified instantly now that the info has been launched to a broader pool of risk actors.
Beaumont says that he plans to launch a listing of the IP addresses within the leak so FortiGate admins can know if the leak impacted them.
In 2021, a risk actor leaked virtually 500,000 Fortinet VPN credentials that have been collected utilizing the CVE-2018-13379 vulnerability.
BleepingComputer additionally reached out to each the risk actors and Fortinet with questions in regards to the leak and can replace the story if we obtain a response.