CVE-2016-1909

Severity: critical (CVSS 9.8 v3.0)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 71.3% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: yes
Published: 2016-01-15 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-264

Description

Fortinet FortiAnalyzer before 5.0.12 and 5.2.x before 5.2.5; FortiSwitch 3.3.x before 3.3.3; FortiCache 3.0.x before 3.0.8; and FortiOS 4.1.x before 4.1.11, 4.2.x before 4.2.16, 4.3.x before 4.3.17 and 5.0.x before 5.0.8 have a hardcoded passphrase for the Fortimanager_Access account, which allows remote attackers to obtain administrative access via an SSH session.

Affected products

Fortinet FortiOS (FortiGate): through 4.3.16; 5.0, 5.0.0, 5.0.1, 5.0.2, 5.0.3, 5.0.4 (+3)

References

http://blog.fortinet.com/post/brief-statement-regarding-issues-found-with-fortios
http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/135225/FortiGate-OS-5.0.7-SSH-Backdoor.html
http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2016/Jan/26
http://www.fortiguard.com/advisory/multiple-products-ssh-undocumented-login-vulnerability
http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1034663
https://twitter.com/esizkur/status/686842135501508608
https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/39224/
http://blog.fortinet.com/post/brief-statement-regarding-issues-found-with-fortios
http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/135225/FortiGate-OS-5.0.7-SSH-Backdoor.html
http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2016/Jan/26
http://www.fortiguard.com/advisory/multiple-products-ssh-undocumented-login-vulnerability
http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1034663

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