Threat actors actively exploit recently fixed Sophos firewall bug

Cybersecurity firm Sophos warned that the recently addressed CVE-2022-1040 flaw in Sophos Firewall is actively exploited in attacks.

Sophos has recently fixed an authentication bypass vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2022-1040, that resides in the User Portal and Webadmin areas of Sophos Firewall.

The CVE-2022-1040 flaw received a CVSS score of 9.8 and impacts Sophos Firewall versions 18.5 MR3 (18.5.3) and earlier. The vulnerability was reported to the security firm by an unnamed security researcher via its bug bounty program.

“An authentication bypass vulnerability allowing remote code execution was discovered in the User Portal and Webadmin of Sophos Firewall and responsibly disclosed to Sophos. It was reported via the Sophos bug bounty program by an external security researcher. The vulnerability has been fixed.” reads the advisory published by the company.

A remote attacker with access to the Firewall’s User Portal or Webadmin interface can exploit the flaw to bypass authentication and execute arbitrary code.

Source Sophos community

The security vendor pointed out that the hotfixes will be automatically installed on its devices by default.

The company also recommends customers avoid exposing their User Portal and Webadmin to WAN.

Sophos is now warning that the CVE-2022-1040 flaw in Sophos Firewall is actively exploited in attacks aimed at a small set of Asian organizations.

“Sophos has observed this vulnerability being used to target a small set of specific organizations primarily in the South Asia region. We have informed each of these organizations directly. Sophos will provide further details as we continue to investigate.” reads the advisory published by the vendor.

Sophos added that users of older versions of its Firewall are required to upgrade to receive the latest protections and this fix.

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, RCE)

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Pierluigi Paganini

Pierluigi Paganini is member of the ENISA (European Union Agency for Network and Information Security) Threat Landscape Stakeholder Group and Cyber G7 Group, he is also a Security Evangelist, Security Analyst and Freelance Writer. Editor-in-Chief at "Cyber Defense Magazine", Pierluigi is a cyber security expert with over 20 years experience in the field, he is Certified Ethical Hacker at EC Council in London. The passion for writing and a strong belief that security is founded on sharing and awareness led Pierluigi to find the security blog "Security Affairs" recently named a Top National Security Resource for US. Pierluigi is a member of the "The Hacker News" team and he is a writer for some major publications in the field such as Cyber War Zone, ICTTF, Infosec Island, Infosec Institute, The Hacker News Magazine and for many other Security magazines. Author of the Books "The Deep Dark Web" and “Digital Virtual Currency and Bitcoin”.