CVE-2024-54020 is a vulnerability identified in Fortinet's FortiManager product, specifically affecting versions 7.2.0 through 7.2.1 and 7.0.0 through 7.0.7. The flaw arises from improper access control due to missing authorization checks in the handling of update requests related to global threat feeds. An authenticated attacker with high privileges (PR:H) can exploit this vulnerability by sending crafted update requests to overwrite global threat feeds. These feeds are critical components used by FortiManager to distribute threat intelligence and security policies across managed devices. The vulnerability does not impact confidentiality or availability but can affect the integrity of the threat feed data, potentially leading to the injection of malicious or incorrect threat information. The CVSS v3.1 base score is 2.1, indicating a low severity level, primarily because exploitation requires authenticated access with high privileges, no user interaction is needed, and the attack vector is local (AV:L). There are no known exploits in the wild at this time, and no patches or mitigation links were provided in the source information. FortiManager is a centralized management platform for Fortinet security devices, widely used in enterprise environments to streamline security operations and policy enforcement.

For European organizations, the impact of this vulnerability is primarily on the integrity of security management processes. If exploited, an attacker could manipulate the global threat feeds, potentially causing incorrect threat intelligence to propagate across the network security infrastructure. This could lead to false negatives or false positives in threat detection, weakening the overall security posture. Although the vulnerability does not directly compromise confidentiality or availability, the integrity breach could facilitate further attacks by allowing malicious traffic to bypass detection or causing unnecessary blocking of legitimate traffic. Organizations relying heavily on FortiManager for centralized security management, especially those in critical infrastructure sectors such as finance, energy, and government, could face increased risk of security incidents if this vulnerability is exploited. However, the requirement for high privilege authentication limits the likelihood of exploitation by external attackers without prior access.

To mitigate this vulnerability, European organizations should: 1) Immediately verify and restrict administrative access to FortiManager instances, ensuring that only trusted personnel have high privilege accounts. 2) Monitor and audit update request logs for unusual or unauthorized changes to global threat feeds. 3) Apply the latest Fortinet security advisories and patches as soon as they become available, even though no patch links are currently provided, organizations should stay alert for vendor updates. 4) Implement network segmentation to isolate FortiManager management interfaces from general network access, reducing the attack surface. 5) Employ multi-factor authentication (MFA) for all administrative access to FortiManager to reduce the risk of credential compromise. 6) Regularly review and validate the integrity of threat feeds and security policies distributed by FortiManager to detect any unauthorized modifications early.