Fortinet Breach Incident Score: Analysis & Impact (FOR4992549111825)

In this Rankiteo incident briefing, we review the Fortinet breach identified under incident ID FOR4992549111825.

The analysis begins with a detailed overview of Fortinet's information like the linkedin page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fortinet, the number of followers: 1167752, the industry type: Computer and Network Security and the number of employees: 15505 employees

After the initial compromise, the video explains how Rankiteo's incident engine converts technical details into a normalized incident score. The incident score before the incident was 635 and after the incident was 626 with a difference of -9 which is could be a good indicator of the severity and impact of the incident.

In the next step of the video, we will analyze in more details the incident and the impact it had on Fortinet and their customers.

On 14 November 2025, Federal Civilian Executive Branch Agencies (U.S.) disclosed Vulnerability Exploitation, Unauthenticated Access and Path Traversal issues under the banner "Critical Fortinet FortiWeb Path Traversal Vulnerability (CVE-2025-64446) Actively Exploited".

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has added a critical Fortinet FortiWeb vulnerability (CVE-2025-64446) to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog.

The disruption is felt across the environment, affecting Fortinet FortiWeb WAF, Protected applications and Downstream infrastructure, and exposing Potential interception of sensitive data passing through WAF.

In response, moved swiftly to contain the threat with measures like Network segmentation to limit lateral movement, and began remediation that includes Apply security patches per Fortinet’s vendor instructions, Implement BOD 22-01 guidance for cloud services and Discontinue use of affected products if mitigations unavailable.

The case underscores how Active exploitation confirmed; remediation ongoing, teams are taking away lessons such as Critical vulnerabilities in perimeter security devices (e.g., WAFs) pose severe risks due to their privileged network position, Unauthenticated flaws with administrative access capabilities are high-priority targets for threat actors and Federal mandates (e.g., BOD 22-01) enforce rapid remediation timelines for known exploited vulnerabilities, and recommending next steps like Immediately patch Fortinet FortiWeb WAF systems to the latest version per vendor guidance, Prioritize remediation for internet-facing FortiWeb deployments and Implement network segmentation to isolate WAF systems and limit lateral movement, with advisories going out to stakeholders covering CISA advisory for federal agencies (remediation deadline: 2025-11-21).

Finally, we try to match the incident with the MITRE ATT&CK framework to see if there is any correlation between the incident and the MITRE ATT&CK framework.

The MITRE ATT&CK framework is a knowledge base of techniques and sub-techniques that are used to describe the tactics and procedures of cyber adversaries. It is a powerful tool for understanding the threat landscape and for developing effective defense strategies.

Rankiteo's analysis has identified several MITRE ATT&CK tactics and techniques associated with this incident, each with varying levels of confidence based on available evidence. Under the Initial Access tactic, the analysis identified Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190) with high confidence (95%), with evidence including unauthenticated attackers to gain **administrative access** via a **relative path-traversal flaw (CWE-23)**, and exploitation enables full system control... via crafted HTTP/HTTPS requests and Valid Accounts: Local Accounts (T1078.003) with high confidence (90%), supported by evidence indicating exploitation grants full privileges, allowing attackers to execute commands, disable security controls. Under the Privilege Escalation tactic, the analysis identified Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068) with high confidence (95%), with evidence including unauthenticated attackers to gain **administrative access**, and cVSS Critical... active exploitation by threat actors. Under the Defense Evasion tactic, the analysis identified Impair Defenses: Disable or Modify Tools (T1562.001) with high confidence (90%), with evidence including disabling security measures, and bypass security controls and Indicator Removal: File Deletion (T1070.004) with moderate to high confidence (70%), supported by evidence indicating review access logs for suspicious HTTP/HTTPS requests (implies attacker may clear logs). Under the Credential Access tactic, the analysis identified Unsecured Credentials: Bash History (T1552.003) with moderate to high confidence (80%), with evidence including intercepting sensitive data (e.g., **credentials**), and full system control... including **command execution** and OS Credential Dumping: LSASS Memory (T1003.001) with moderate to high confidence (75%), supported by evidence indicating lateral movement into corporate networks (implies credential harvesting). Under the Lateral Movement tactic, the analysis identified Remote Services: SSH (T1021.004) with moderate to high confidence (85%), with evidence including lateral movement into corporate networks, and pivot laterally within corporate networks and Remote Services: RDP (T1021.001) with moderate to high confidence (80%), supported by evidence indicating lateral movement into corporate networks. Under the Collection tactic, the analysis identified Data from Local System (T1005) with high confidence (90%), with evidence including intercepting sensitive data (e.g., credentials, **financial transactions**), and potential interception of sensitive data passing through WAF and Network Sniffing (T1040) with moderate to high confidence (85%), supported by evidence indicating intercepting sensitive data... transmitted through WAF. Under the Exfiltration tactic, the analysis identified Exfiltration Over Alternative Protocol: Exfiltration Over Unencrypted/Obfuscated Non-C2 Protocol (T1048.003) with moderate to high confidence (80%), with evidence including possible if attackers intercept or pivot to other systems, and data exfiltration such as Possible if attackers intercept.... Under the Impact tactic, the analysis identified Endpoint Denial of Service: Application or System Exploitation (T1499.004) with moderate to high confidence (75%), with evidence including disruption of business-critical services, and potential downstream infrastructure compromise and Data Destruction (T1485) with moderate confidence (60%), supported by evidence indicating sustained attacker presence, data exfiltration, or disruption (implies potential for destructive actions). Under the Persistence tactic, the analysis identified Server Software Component: Web Shell (T1505.003) with moderate to high confidence (85%), with evidence including potential backdoors established if attackers maintain access post-exploitation, and full system control... command execution with full privileges. These correlations help security teams understand the attack chain and develop appropriate defensive measures based on the observed tactics and techniques.