CVE-2024-50563: 
FortiOS vulnerability analysis and mitigation

A weak authentication vulnerability (CWE-1390) was discovered in Fortinet's csfd daemon affecting multiple products including FortiManager Cloud, FortiAnalyzer, and FortiProxy. The vulnerability was initially published on January 14, 2025, and affects various versions of these products. This security issue allows an unauthenticated attacker with access to the Security Fabric interface and port to potentially execute unauthorized code or commands through brute-force attacks against the authentication process (Fortinet Advisory, NVD).

The vulnerability has been assigned a CVSS v3.1 base score of 9.8 (Critical) by NIST and 7.3 (High) by Fortinet. The attack vector is network-based (AV:N) with low attack complexity (AC:L), requiring no privileges (PR:N) or user interaction (UI:N). The vulnerability specifically affects the Security Fabric protocol's authentication mechanism in the csfd daemon, potentially allowing attackers to bypass security controls (NVD).

If successfully exploited, this vulnerability allows attackers to execute unauthorized code or commands and potentially take control of devices within the Security Fabric. For FortiManager specifically, successful exploitation could lead to access to a restricted list of features. The vulnerability affects multiple product lines and versions, potentially exposing organizations to significant security risks (Fortinet Advisory).

Fortinet has released several mitigations and workarounds for this vulnerability. The primary recommendation is to upgrade affected products to their respective fixed versions. For FortiAnalyzer and FortiManager 7.6, upgrade to version 7.6.2 or above; for 7.4 versions, upgrade to 7.4.4 or above. Alternative workarounds include using a strong password (at least 20 characters, randomly generated) for the group-password field in the config system csf CLI command, or disabling the security fabric entirely using 'config system csf set status disable' (Fortinet Advisory).