CVE-2022-42475 — Fortinet Fortios

As of 2025-10-24, CVE-2022-42475 is a CRITICAL-severity vulnerability in Fortinet Fortios, CVSS v3.1 9.8, EPSS 93.9% (99.8th percentile). It is listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2022-12-13), with a US federal remediation deadline of 2023-01-03, and CISA links it to known ransomware campaigns. Threadlinqs Intelligence links 3 tracked threat campaigns to CVE-2022-42475, most recently “FortiBleed: Mass Credential Compromise Campaign Against Internet-Exposed Fortinet FortiGate Devices (86,644 Devices, 194 Countries)”.

Last updated: 2025-10-24

What is CVE-2022-42475?

A heap-based buffer overflow vulnerability [CWE-122] in FortiOS SSL-VPN 7.2.0 through 7.2.2, 7.0.0 through 7.0.8, 6.4.0 through 6.4.10, 6.2.0 through 6.2.11, 6.0.15 and earlier and FortiProxy SSL-VPN 7.2.0 through 7.2.1, 7.0.7 and earlier may allow a remote unauthenticated attacker to execute arbitrary code or commands via specifically crafted requests.

The record classifies CVE-2022-42475 under weakness classes CWE-197, CWE-787. Its CVSS v3 base vector states that the flaw is reachable remotely over the network, needs no prior authentication, needs no user interaction, and has high impact on confidentiality, integrity, availability. 23 affected-product entries are recorded, across 1 vendor, listed below. The identifier was first published 1349 days ago.

Severity and exploitation probability

CVSS v3.1 base score

9.8 — CRITICAL
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

EPSS (FIRST)

93.9% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 99.8% of all scored CVEs

CISA KEV

Listed since 2022-12-13, federal remediation deadline 2023-01-03 — used in known ransomware campaigns

Threadlinqs priority

10/10 — CISA lists it as used in ransomware, which Threadlinqs scores at the maximum

Published

2023-01-02, last modified 2025-10-24

Is CVE-2022-42475 being exploited?

CISA added CVE-2022-42475 to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2022-12-13, which means the agency holds evidence of exploitation in the wild; US federal civilian agencies had to remediate it by 2023-01-03 under BOD 22-01. CISA flags the vulnerability as one used in known ransomware campaigns. It currently carries a trending score of 40 in the Threadlinqs vulnerability feed.

Affected products and versions

• Fortinet: Fortios, Fortiproxy, Fim-7901e, Fim-7904e, Fim-7910e, Fim-7920e, Fim-7921f, Fim-7941f, Fortigate-6300f, Fortigate-6300f-dc, Fortigate-6500f, Fortigate-6500f-dc, Fortigate-6501f, Fortigate-6501f-dc, Fortigate-6601f, Fortigate-6601f-dc, Fortigate-7030e, Fortigate-7040e, Fortigate-7060e, Fortigate-7121f, Fpm-7620e, Fpm-7620f, Fpm-7630e

How to fix CVE-2022-42475

The record marks a vendor fix as available for CVE-2022-42475. Vendor advisory: https://fortiguard.com/psirt/FG-IR-22-398. Because CVE-2022-42475 is KEV-listed, US federal civilian agencies were required to apply the vendor fix, or stop using the product, by 2023-01-03. Apply the vendor fix referenced above to every affected product listed in this record, then confirm the running version against the vendor advisory.

Threat activity tracking CVE-2022-42475

3 tracked threats in the Threadlinqs corpus reference CVE-2022-42475, either in the campaign’s CVE list or as an indicator on the campaign record.

• FortiBleed: Mass Credential Compromise Campaign Against Internet-Exposed Fortinet FortiGate Devices (86,644 Devices, 194 Countries) — CRITICAL · 2026-07-11
• FortiBleed Credential Theft Campaign Linked to INC and Lynx Ransomware Operations — CRITICAL · 2026-07-05
• UNC3886 Zero-Day Rootkit Campaign Targeting Singaporean Telecommunications — ORB Network C2, Fortinet/VMware Exploitation, Covert Infrastructure Persistence — CRITICAL · 2026-03-13

Sources

Seeded from NVD and not yet processed by the Threadlinqs enrichment pipeline, so blank CVSS, EPSS or KEV fields above mean NOT MEASURED rather than measured-absent.

• fortiguard.com
• cisa.gov

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