US, UK and Australia warn of Iran-linked APTs exploiting Fortinet, Microsoft Exchange flaws

CVE-2018-13379 is a path traversal flaw (CWE-22) in the Fortinet FortiOS SSL VPN web portal that allows an unauthenticated attacker to download FortiOS system files via specially crafted HTTP resource requests. By traversing directories through crafted requests to the exposed web portal, the attacker can retrieve sensitive files, a technique publicly documented as yielding the SSL VPN session file containing usernames and passwords in plaintext. Any organization running the SSL VPN web portal on a FortiGate appliance is affected, and risk is highest where the portal is directly reachable from the internet. The flaw is confirmed in the wild: it was added to the CISA KEV catalog on 2021-11-03 with known ransomware use, and EPSS assigns it a 100% probability of exploitation within 30 days. No public PoC is listed in the provided data, but credential theft tied to this bug has been widely reused by threat actors.

Do: Apply the patched FortiOS release per Fortinet's vendor advisory immediately, as this is a CISA KEV required action; if the fixed version is not known from this data, follow Fortinet's FG-IR-18-384 advisory for the correct upgrade path. Rotate SSL VPN credentials and review VPN access logs for path-traversal requests, since successful exploitation exposes plaintext session credentials, and restrict SSL VPN portal exposure to trusted sources where possible.

CVE-2019-5591 is a default-configuration flaw in Fortinet FortiOS (CWE-306, missing authentication for a critical function): when a FortiGate acts as an LDAP client over SSL/TLS for authentication purposes, the default configuration does not properly authenticate the LDAP server, allowing an unauthenticated attacker on the same subnet to impersonate the LDAP server. The attack requires adjacency (the attacker must be on the same network segment as the device's LDAP traffic) and only works where the device uses LDAP over TLS with the default, non-validating settings. A successful attacker can intercept sensitive authentication information, such as usernames and passwords, exchanged with the LDAP server, with high confidentiality impact but no integrity or availability impact per the CVSS score. Organizations running affected FortiOS releases with LDAP-over-TLS configured are exposed; FortiOS runs on one of the largest firewall/VPN installed bases, though the source data does not state exact affected version ranges or deployment counts. The flaw is listed in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2021-11-03) with known in-the-wild and ransomware use; late-2021 CISA and FBI advisories warned that APT actors were exploiting Fortinet bugs, including this one, for initial access, and no public PoC is known.

Do: Upgrade affected FortiGate/FortiOS units to a fixed release (6.2.1+, 6.0.8+, 5.6.10+, or 5.4.12+) per Fortinet's instructions, as required by CISA's KEV listing. If patching is delayed, disable the use of SSL/TLS in the LDAP server configuration or restrict and monitor the network path between the FortiGate and the LDAP server. Inventory which devices use LDAPS for authentication and review authentication logs for signs of server impersonation or credential theft.

Fortinet FortiOS SSL VPN improperly validates the second factor of authentication (FortiToken), allowing a user with valid primary credentials to log in without being prompted for their one-time token. The bypass is triggered by changing the letter case of the username (e.g., typing 'Admin' instead of 'admin'), a case-sensitivity handling flaw (CWE-178) in the authentication logic (CWE-287). An attacker who has stolen, phished, or reused a user's primary credentials can therefore gain full SSL VPN access without the multi-factor protection defenders assume is enforced. Any organization running an affected FortiOS SSL VPN portal with FortiToken two-factor authentication for users is exposed. The flaw is in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2021-11-03) with known ransomware use, and EPSS assigns a 49.3% probability of exploitation within 30 days (99th percentile); no public PoC is known.

Do: Apply the FortiOS update per Fortinet's advisory, as required by CISA's KEV listing. Until patched, audit SSL VPN logs for successful logins in which no FortiToken second-factor prompt occurred (especially sessions authenticating with altered username case), and consider restricting the SSL VPN portal to trusted source addresses or disabling it temporarily. Any accounts found with second-factor-free VPN logins should have credentials rotated and be checked for follow-on compromise, given known ransomware use.

Microsoft Exchange Server contains a server-side request forgery (SSRF, CWE-918) in the Autodiscover service that unauthenticated remote attackers can reach over HTTP. This flaw is the first stage of the widely documented 'ProxyShell' chain, in which the SSRF is combined with privilege escalation and an arbitrary file write in the Exchange PowerShell backend to achieve unauthenticated remote code execution on the server. An attacker who successfully exploits it gains the ability to run code on the Exchange server, and ransomware operators (e.g., Cuba ransomware) leveraged this chain to deploy payloads. Organizations running on-premises Microsoft Exchange Server (2013, 2016, and 2019 per the vendor's advisories) are affected; hosted Exchange Online is a separately managed cloud service. Exploitation is confirmed in the wild: CISA added the flaw to the KEV catalog on 2021-11-03 with known ransomware use, and EPSS assigns it a 100% probability of exploitation within 30 days (100th percentile).

Do: Apply Microsoft's July 2021 (or later) Exchange Server security updates, which include the ProxyShell fixes, to all on-premises servers. If patching is delayed, restrict internet access to the Autodiscover/EWS frontend endpoints and consider the URL Rewrite mitigation Microsoft published for ProxyShell. Given the KEV listing and known ransomware use, treat internet-facing, unpatched Exchange servers as potentially compromised and hunt for webshells, unusual Exchange processes, and suspicious account or mailbox activity.