SOCRadar says it assessed 178 FortiGate devices as infected with PivotC2 in files recovered during its investigation—not in a global census or an independently confirmed count. Its September 8, 2026 report describes exploitation of CVE-2025-25249, a vulnerability in FortiOS and FortiSwitchManager, followed by malware that could turn a perimeter appliance into a foothold for remote access, network discovery and credential theft.
What is PivotC2?
SOCRadar describes PivotC2 as a Node.js post-exploitation remote-access tool (RAT) built for FortiGate appliances. In this context, “post-exploitation” means the malware is used after an attacker has gained code execution; it is not the vulnerability or the initial exploit itself.
Based on its analysis of recovered files, SOCRadar says PivotC2 could provide an interactive shell, transfer files, proxy traffic through SOCKS5 or HTTP, set up port forwarding, scan networks, and collect FortiGate configuration data. The report also describes functionality for decrypting credentials stored in appliance configuration. These are capabilities attributed to the recovered tooling; they do not establish that every capability was used on every infected device.
Is CVE-2025-25249 being exploited in the wild?
SOCRadar reported on September 8, 2026, that it had identified exploitation in the wild since at least July 2026 and that activity was ongoing at the time of publication. Its report calls CVE-2025-25249 a heap-based buffer overflow in the cw_acd daemon in FortiOS and FortiSwitchManager. SOCRadar says specially crafted requests could enable remote, unauthenticated code or command execution.
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That is the status reported by SOCRadar on that date, not a live confirmation of activity today. The campaign-specific findings in ThaiCERT’s September 11 summary and SecurityWeek’s September 2026 coverage are secondary accounts of SOCRadar’s work, not independent validation of its infection tally or technical findings.
What does the 178-device figure mean?
In files recovered during its investigation, SOCRadar says it found a list of more than 30,000 targeted FortiGate IP addresses and 178 devices it assessed as exploited and infected with PivotC2. Those figures describe SOCRadar’s recovered campaign dataset. They are not a count of all exposed or compromised FortiGate devices worldwide, and the assessment does not establish the likelihood that any particular organization was compromised.
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SOCRadar also reports two full intrusions against U.S.-based organizations with confirmed data exfiltration. That finding concerns those two investigated intrusions; it does not show that data was taken from every device in the 178-device set.
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A FortiGate sits at a network boundary and may handle traffic between the internet and internal systems, as well as VPN or other organizational connectivity. If an attacker gains control of the appliance, its position can provide a useful vantage point for reaching or surveying systems behind that boundary. A device that administrators expect to run network services can also make malicious activity harder to distinguish from routine appliance operations.
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SOCRadar’s technical account illustrates the risk without proving that every infected device was used in the same way: the reported PivotC2 capabilities include interactive access, traffic forwarding, scanning and harvesting configuration data. The report also describes functions to decrypt credentials found in that configuration. Those capabilities can support further access, but the campaign report does not establish a specific downstream outcome for every assessed device.
How did SOCRadar describe the infection chain?
SOCRadar says the recovered exploit flow used a binary to target the vulnerable daemon, established a reverse shell through Node.js, and then ran a JavaScript stager. That stager retrieved a second-stage payload and saved it as /tmp/.i.js. The report says PivotC2 then maintained outbound TLS command-and-control communications.
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These details come from SOCRadar’s recovered files and reverse engineering. The report assesses the campaign as Russian-speaking and financially motivated with high confidence; this is the research team’s attribution assessment, not an established identification of the operators. Its suggestion that AI may have assisted malware development is likewise an assessment based on inline comments and usage guidance, not confirmation of how the tool was authored.
Which versions does SOCRadar list as fixed?
The following are the fixed releases listed in SOCRadar’s report. Confirm the applicable upgrade path and supported target release in Fortinet’s current advisory and product documentation before making a change; the report’s version mapping is not a substitute for checking your product’s supported upgrade sequence.
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| 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 |
What should FortiGate and FortiSwitchManager administrators do?
- Identify affected exposure. Inventory FortiOS and FortiSwitchManager versions, determine which software branches are deployed, and check whether relevant control traffic is reachable from the internet.
- Upgrade along a supported path. Apply the appropriate fixed release or a later supported release for the installed branch. Verify the target and upgrade sequence against Fortinet’s current guidance before proceeding.
- Limit exposed CAPWAP control traffic. Where appropriate for the deployment, restrict external CAPWAP control access. SOCRadar specifically recommends disabling fabric service on external interfaces or using a local-in policy to drop UDP ports 5246–5249. Confirm the effect on required services before changing production firewall policy.
- Hunt for signs of execution or command-and-control. Review appliance sessions, files, processes and activity for suspicious behavior. SOCRadar names
/tmp/.i.js, unauthorized Node.js execution and connections matching its reported indicators as investigation leads. Treat those indicators as specific to its report and verify them against current threat intelligence before using them for blocking or detection. - Respond to evidence of compromise. Follow your incident-response procedures and relevant vendor guidance. Assume secrets stored in the appliance configuration may have been exposed; assess and rotate applicable administrative, VPN, LDAP, wireless and IPsec credentials. Also investigate possible lateral access and evaluate incident-reporting obligations.
SOCRadar’s report is the primary public technical account identified for the campaign-specific malware analysis and figures. ThaiCERT’s September 11, 2026 summary and SecurityWeek’s September 2026 article provide secondary coverage. Because those summaries repeat SOCRadar’s findings, they do not make the campaign totals independently confirmed. The material available here does not establish specific Fortinet advisory wording or a CISA KEV listing date, so administrators should check current official records for those details.
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