A brand new hacking group has leaked the configuration recordsdata, IP addresses, and VPN credentials for over 15,000 FortiGate gadgets 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.
“Originally of the 12 months, 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: Will likely be revealed of delicate information from over 15,000 targets worldwide (each governmental and personal sectors) which were hacked and their information extracted,” reads a hacking discussion board put up.
Supply: BleepingComputer
The FortiGate leak consists of a 1.6 GB archive containing folders ordered by nation. Every folder accommodates additional subfolders for every FortiGate’s IP handle in that nation.
Supply: Beaumont
In keeping with cybersecurity knowledgeable Kevin Beaumont, every IP handle 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 comprise delicate data, resembling non-public keys and firewall guidelines.
In a weblog put up 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 accomplished incident response on one machine at a sufferer org, and exploitation was certainly by way of 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 main points on the machine,” explains Beaumont.
“The information seems to have been assembled in October 2022, as a zero day vuln. For some motive, the info dump of config has been launched as we speak, 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 recordsdata from focused FortiGate gadgets after which add a malicious super_admin account known as ‘fortigate-tech-support’.
Supply: Fortinet
German information web site Heise analyzed the info leak and in addition stated that it was gathered in 2022, with all gadgets using FortiOS firmware 7.0.0-7.0.6 or 7.2.0-7.2.2.
“All gadgets 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 mounted the CVE-2022–40684 flaw, so it will be unclear how gadgets working that model could possibly be exploited with this vulnerability.
Despite the fact that these configuration recordsdata have been collected in 2022, Beaumont warns that they nonetheless expose a whole lot of delicate details about a community’s defenses.
This contains 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.
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.