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Analysis and Attribution

Background

Vulnerabilities in Fortigate devices are often used to obtain initial access to target organizations, often due to the nature of the device and an insecure codebase. Of late, their customers have been warned of a new zeroday in the wild, CVE-2024-55591- an authentication bypass using an alternate path or channel vulnerability. However, the relationship between threat actors and the fortigate zero-days goes way back.

In 2022, Fortigate had informed their customers about exploitation in the wild for CVE-2022-40684 - another authentication bypass vulnerability that can be exploited using an alternate path or channel.2 days ago, someone leaked over 15k Fortigate firewall configurations on an english speaking hacking forum.

Information from the Post

On 14 JANUARY 2025, CloudSEK’s contextual AI digital risk platform XVigil discovered a threat actor with the moniker “Belsen_Group” leaking configs obtained from over 15,000 Fortigate firewalls.

Threat actor leaking configs from over 15k Fortigate firewalls on their onion website for free

IR engagements by researchers revealed that the threat actor most likely milked the exploit for CVE-2022-40684 by mass exploitation in 2022. Once they exhausted its use for themselves(either by selling or using the access), the threat actor(s) decided to leak it in 2025.
This list was compiled in October 2022, likely when there wasn’t any CVE assigned to it.

The majority of the devices are 2 versions, from Fortigate 7.x devices and 7.2.x devices.
The leaked information includes

Usernames
Passwords (some in plain text)
Device management digital certificates
All firewall rules

Based on the available information, it can be ascertained with medium confidence that the threat actor used a zeroday exploit on Fortigate firewalls in 2022, followed by access brokering/mass exploitation, and subsequently leaking the data in 2025.

Note: CloudSEK has updated this blog with a link to the list of firewall IPs that were compromised. Organizations are recommended to check the blog for the list and ensure they have taken necessary response and mitigation steps.

Threat Actor Activity and Rating

Threat Actor Profiling
Active since	Jan 2025
Reputation	0
Current Status	ACTIVE
History	Belsen Group may seem new to the forums, but based on the data leaked by them, we can ascertain with high confidence that they’ve been around for at least 3 years now. They were likely part of a threat group that exploited a zero day in 2022, although direct affiliations have not been established yet.
Rating	High

Are You Impacted?

Please check your exposure from the list of IPs: https://pastebin.com/mffLfcLp

Chart

Geographical Breakdown of the compromised Fortigate firewalls

US, UK, Poland and Belgium lead the charts with over 20 victims in each country.
France, Spain, Malaysia, Netherlands,Thailand and Saudi Arabia follow the trail, with over 10 victims in each country.

Note: This visualization includes data from companies with multiple office locations. This data is collected by parsing the domains from the emails part of the credentials leaked by the threat actor. We have not used IP addresses of the firewalls for showcasing geographical distribution.

Impact

Compromised Credentials: Exposure of usernames and passwords (some in plaintext) enables attackers to directly access sensitive systems. Even if organizations patched this CVE in 2022 after the patch was released by Fortigate, they still need to check for signs of compromise, as this was a zeroday.
Firewall Rules Publicized: Leaking firewall configurations reveals internal network structures, potentially enabling attackers to bypass defenses.
Device Management Certificates: Breached digital certificates could allow unauthorized device access or impersonation in secure communications.
Prolonged Exploitation Risk: Organizations patched after the initial 2022 disclosure may still face risks due to pre-existing compromise during the vulnerability's active exploitation.

Mitigation

Change Credentials Immediately: Update all device and VPN credentials, prioritizing those listed in the dump. Use strong, unique passwords.
Audit and Reconfigure Firewalls: Review firewall rules for vulnerabilities introduced by public exposure and tighten access controls.
Rotate Certificates: Revoke and replace all exposed digital certificates to restore secure communications.
Incident Response and Forensics: Determine the exact patching timeline for CVE-2022–40684, conduct forensic analysis of potentially affected devices, and monitor for unusual activity.