Admin-to-super-admin escalation via malicious upstream connection
Published Feb 11, 2025 · Updated Feb 26, 2026
Incorrect privilege assignment in Fortinet FortiOS allows remote authenticated users to gain super-admin privileges through Security Fabric. Fortinet has not disclosed which Security Fabric routine accepts or applies the incorrect privilege assignment during an upstream connection. Exploitation requires an authenticated administrator account with Security Fabric permission and control of the upstream FortiGate, after which the account receives unrestricted device administration.
Summary
What happened
Incorrect privilege assignment in Fortinet FortiOS allows remote authenticated users to gain super-admin privileges through Security Fabric. Fortinet has not disclosed which Security Fabric routine accepts or applies the incorrect privilege assignment during an upstream connection. Exploitation requires an authenticated administrator account with Security Fabric permission and control of the upstream FortiGate, after which the account receives unrestricted device administration.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2024-40591
- Published
- Feb 11, 2025
- Updated
- Feb 26, 2026
- Vendor
- Fortinet
- Product
- FortiOS
- Classifications
- CWE-266, T1068
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- admin
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Feb 11, 2025CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Feb 26, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
Compare your product and version with the public record. A matching version still requires validation against your environment.
Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=6.4.0 <=6.4.15
- Affected versionversion=7.0.0 <=7.0.15
- Affected versionversion=7.2.0 <=7.2.9
- Affected versionversion=7.4.0 <=7.4.4
- Affected versionversion=7.6.0
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
No public exploit references are available in this record.
Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.
Technologies
Your stack
See the directory against your own environment.
Your stack
Check the software in your environment
Book a demo to see how Hinoki identifies affected software and validates exploitability in your environment.
Book a demo