Fortinet Warns of New Attacks Exploiting Old Vulnerability
Source SecurityWeek
Exploited in the wild · KEV due 3 May 2022 : apply the vendor's fix or mitigations to FortiOS now.
Data as of 1 Jan 2026, 22:44 UTC
- KEV deadline
- US federal agencies must patch by this date; a sensible deadline for everyone else.
Exploitation evidence
t = 0 is the CVE’s publication on cve.org
Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 24 Jul 2020
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: evidence found.
Listed in CISA KEV 1.3 years after disclosure
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors
Timeline
CVE published
on cve.org
, t = 0
Added to CISA KEV (opens in a new tab)
exploitation confirmed · ransomware use known
, 1.3 years after disclosure
KEV remediation due
US federal deadline
, 1.8 years after disclosure
A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), CISA KEV (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 2026-10-26.
What to do
Affected software
| Product | Affected | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
| Fortinet FortiOS | Affected
| Fixed in– |
AI-suggested
European organizations should immediately verify their FortiOS versions against Fortinet's official advisories and apply all relevant patches addressing CVE-2020-12812. Where patching is not immediately possible, organizations should enforce strict network segmentation and limit administrative access to FortiOS devices. Multi-factor authentication should be reviewed and enhanced, potentially incorporating hardware tokens or certificate-based authentication to reduce reliance on vulnerable 2FA implementations. Continuous monitoring for unusual login attempts or configuration changes on FortiOS devices is essential. Implementing robust logging and alerting mechanisms can help detect exploitation attempts early. Additionally, organizations should conduct regular security audits and penetration testing focused on network security appliances. Employee training on recognizing phishing or social engineering attempts that could facilitate exploitation is also recommended. Coordination with national cybersecurity agencies and sharing threat intelligence can improve preparedness and response.
Description
Tracked as CVE-2020-12812, the exploited FortiOS flaw allows threat actors to bypass two-factor authentication. The post Fortinet Warns of New Attacks Exploiting Old Vulnerability appeared first on SecurityWeek .