SOCRadar says it found 178 FortiGate devices or sessions infected with PivotC2 in files recovered during its investigation—not a confirmed worldwide infection count. Its September 8, 2026 report describes exploitation of CVE-2025-25249, a vulnerability in FortiOS and FortiSwitchManager, followed by deployment of a remote-access tool that can use a firewall as a foothold into other networks. The practical response is to check affected software branches, restrict exposed CAPWAP control traffic where appropriate, investigate suspicious activity, and rotate secrets if compromise is suspected.
What happened, and what does “178 devices” mean?
SOCRadar Threat Research Unit (STRU) reports that attackers exploited CVE-2025-25249 to compromise FortiGate appliances and deploy PivotC2. Its recovered campaign files listed more than 30,000 FortiGate IP addresses as targets and 178 devices or sessions that SOCRadar assessed as exploited and infected. Those are figures from SOCRadar’s dataset, not a global census or independently confirmed totals from Fortinet or CISA.
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SOCRadar also reports two full intrusions against U.S.-based organizations with confirmed data exfiltration. That finding establishes that data theft occurred in those investigated cases; it does not mean every infected appliance was used to exfiltrate data. The number of targets in a file likewise does not show how many were vulnerable, reachable, or successfully compromised.
SOCRadar said on September 8, 2026, that it had observed exploitation since at least July 2026 and that activity was ongoing at the time of publication. That is a dated report of its observations, not continuously refreshed threat telemetry.
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- Compact and Efficient Design: The FortiGate 40F is designed for small to mid-sized businesses and enterprise branch offices, featuring a compact, fanless desktop form factor that ensures quiet operation and minimizes space usage.
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Is CVE-2025-25249 being exploited in the wild?
Yes, according to SOCRadar’s September 8, 2026 investigation. The team says the campaign exploited CVE-2025-25249, a heap-based buffer overflow in the cw_acd daemon in FortiOS and FortiSwitchManager. SOCRadar describes specially crafted requests as enabling remote code or command execution without authentication on affected systems.
That makes version and exposure checks urgent, but the campaign count alone cannot tell an organization whether its appliance was compromised. Risk assessment needs to combine the installed product and software branch with reachability of relevant control traffic and evidence of suspicious execution or outbound connections.
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Fixed releases listed in SOCRadar’s report
The following versions are those SOCRadar lists as fixed. Confirm the supported upgrade path and current status in Fortinet’s official advisory before changing production appliances; an upgrade path may depend on the starting release and configuration.
| Product branch | Fixed release listed by SOCRadar |
|---|---|
| FortiOS 7.6 | 7.6.4 or later |
| FortiOS 7.4 | 7.4.9 or later |
| FortiOS 7.2 | 7.2.12 or later |
| FortiOS 7.0 | 7.0.18 or later |
| FortiSwitchManager 7.2 | 7.2.7 or later |
| FortiSwitchManager 7.0 | 7.0.6 or later |
The list does not establish the status of every product branch or release. Check Fortinet’s current product security guidance for the exact device and supported upgrade sequence rather than assuming a listed number applies across branches.
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What is PivotC2?
SOCRadar describes PivotC2 as a Node.js post-exploitation remote-access tool tailored to FortiGate appliances. In its account, the exploit flow used a binary against the vulnerable daemon, established a reverse shell through Node.js, and ran a JavaScript stager that fetched another payload and saved it as /tmp/.i.js.
Based on its analysis of recovered files, SOCRadar says the tool can provide interactive shell access; transfer files; tunnel traffic through SOCKS5 or HTTP proxies; forward ports; scan networks; harvest FortiGate configuration; and decrypt credentials held in that configuration. These are capabilities attributed to the recovered tooling, not evidence that every feature was used in every intrusion.
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The distinction matters: a compromised edge appliance can be more than a target to defend. If an attacker can operate it, its network position and stored configuration may help them reach internal systems, move traffic, or obtain credentials. But observed access to an appliance alone does not prove lateral movement or data theft; those require investigation of the affected environment.
Do these 3 things before closing this tab:
1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsWhy can an edge appliance be a quiet place to hide?
A firewall or network appliance sits at a boundary where legitimate management and network-control activity already occurs. That position can give an intruder a useful vantage point and make appliance activity consequential beyond the device itself. The “quiet” risk is not that firewalls are inherently invisible; it is that organizations may focus monitoring on servers and endpoints while under-investigating the infrastructure that routes or controls their traffic.
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- High leverage: An appliance’s network position can make it a potential path toward internal resources or a place to route traffic.
- Valuable configuration: SOCRadar says PivotC2 can collect FortiGate configuration and decrypt credentials, making stored secrets a concern after suspected compromise.
- Unusual execution deserves scrutiny: Node.js execution and a file such as
/tmp/.i.jsare specific hunt leads reported by SOCRadar, though administrators should compare them with the appliance’s legitimate software and activity. - Exposure is not proof of infection: A vulnerable version or internet reachability raises concern, but neither alone confirms compromise. Likewise, the campaign’s target and infection figures cannot be translated into an individual organization’s odds.
How should administrators respond?
Use the sequence below to establish exposure, reduce reachable attack surface, and investigate for evidence. Coordinate disruptive changes and incident handling with the organization’s network and security teams.
- Inventory affected products and versions. Identify FortiOS and FortiSwitchManager devices, record their software branches, and compare them with the fixed releases above. Plan upgrades using Fortinet’s current advisory and the supported path for each starting version.
- Review external CAPWAP control exposure. Where appropriate to the deployment, restrict internet-facing access. SOCRadar recommends disabling fabric service on external interfaces or using a local-in policy to drop UDP ports 5246–5249. Confirm the change will not disrupt intended management or network functions.
- Hunt for suspicious execution and sessions. Examine appliance activity for unexpected Node.js processes, the reported
/tmp/.i.jsfile, suspicious sessions, and outbound connections. SOCRadar’s report includes campaign indicators; validate any indicator against current threat intelligence before using it as a detection or blocking rule. - Assess the blast radius. Review whether the appliance had access to internal networks, whether related systems show suspicious access, and whether data movement or exfiltration occurred. Preserve relevant logs and evidence in line with incident-response procedures.
- Rotate potentially exposed secrets if compromise indicators are found. SOCRadar advises treating credentials stored in appliance configuration as potentially exposed. Assess and rotate relevant administrative, VPN, LDAP, wireless, and IPsec credentials, and review where those credentials could grant access.
- Follow incident procedures. Escalate confirmed or suspected compromise through organizational response channels, and assess applicable reporting obligations. Do not treat patching alone as a substitute for investigating a suspected intrusion.
What SOCRadar’s findings do—and do not—establish
SOCRadar is the primary public technical account identified for this campaign’s recovered tooling, figures, observed intrusions, and attribution assessment. ThaiCERT’s September 11, 2026 summary and SecurityWeek’s September 2026 coverage provide secondary summaries of SOCRadar’s findings; they do not independently verify the campaign-wide infection tally.
SOCRadar assesses the operators as Russian-speaking and financially motivated, with high confidence. That is the research team’s attribution assessment, not an established identification of the people behind the activity. Its suggestion that AI may have assisted tool development is likewise an assessment based on comments and usage guidance found in the files, not confirmation of how the malware was authored.
The investigation supports treating this as a serious vulnerability and a reason to examine edge appliances, but not treating every target address as compromised or every infected device as a confirmed data-theft case. Apply the fixed release appropriate to the product, reduce unnecessary external control exposure, and use device and network evidence to determine whether an intrusion occurred.
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