Fortinet, a leading cybersecurity company, has issued patches for eight vulnerabilities across its products, including two high-severity authentication flaws in FortiWeb and FortiManager. The patches address weaknesses that could allow attackers to bypass security controls or gain unauthorized access to sensitive systems.
The most critical issue affects FortiWeb, where an attacker can exploit a flaw (CVE-2026-26035) to log in to the web application firewall’s graphical user interface (GUI) or command-line interface (CLI) with a random username and password. This vulnerability arises from the wildcard setting for administrator accounts, which is disabled by default but can be enabled intentionally. When enabled, FortiWeb will match any username on a remote server with the Remote User account, allowing an attacker to gain unauthorized access.
The problem occurs when administrators configure their systems to allow wildcards in user authentication. This feature is designed to simplify management by reducing the need for manual user configuration, but it also introduces a significant security risk. Fortinet advises users to disable the wildcard setting as a workaround until the vulnerability can be patched. The company has released patches for FortiWeb versions 8.0.3, 7.6.7, 7.4.12, and 7.2.13.
Another critical issue affects FortiManager, where an attacker can bypass authentication controls to impersonate any FortiGate device managed by the system. This vulnerability (CVE-2026-70468) requires a specific CLI option to be set and for the attacker to possess a valid certificate. Once exploited, the attacker can gain full access to the managed devices.
In addition to these high-severity vulnerabilities, Fortinet has patched several medium- and low-severity security defects in other products, including FortiWeb WAF, FortiOS, and FortiSIEM. The company also published an advisory detailing the impact of CVE-2026-49975, a HTTP/2 Bomb attack affecting Apache HTTP Server.
While Fortinet has not confirmed any exploitation of these vulnerabilities in the wild, it’s essential for administrators to prioritize patching their systems as soon as possible. This is especially crucial given the potential consequences of a successful exploit – including unauthorized access to sensitive data and systems.
To protect themselves, users should immediately update their systems with the latest patches. Administrators can also take steps to mitigate these vulnerabilities by disabling unnecessary features, implementing robust authentication controls, and regularly monitoring system logs for suspicious activity.
Source: SecurityWeek — 2026-08-13