CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2019-6693 — Fortinet FortiOS Use of Hard-Coded Credentials Vulnerability

Medium CVSS 6.5 CISA KEV

Use of a hard-coded cryptographic key to cipher sensitive data in FortiOS configuration backup file may allow an attacker with access to the backup file to decipher the sensitive data, via knowledge of the hard-coded key. The aforementioned sensitive data includes users' passwords (except the administrator's password), private keys' passphrases and High Availability password (when set).

Severity
Medium
CVSS
6.5 (3.1)
Published
2019-11-21
CISA KEV
Known exploited
Ecosystem
operating-system
Weaknesses
CWE-798

Affected products

  • fortinet / fortios
  • fortinet / fortios / 6.2.0

Showing 2 representative product identities from 3 source matches. Confirm exact affected versions with the linked vendor and NVD evidence.

Matched remediation archetype

Authentication bypass and missing authentication

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Check exposure

  • Map every affected endpoint and protocol path, including alternate ports, legacy routes, recovery flows, service accounts, and machine-to-machine access.
  • Confirm which deployments enable the affected authentication mode and whether the interface is reachable from untrusted networks.
  • Review session, token, credential, and proxy trust configuration without attempting account takeover.

Remediate safely

  • Apply the supported fix and centralize fail-closed authentication before protected request handling.
  • Remove default or embedded credentials, rotate affected secrets and sessions, and bind authentication decisions to the intended audience and channel.
  • Add negative tests for alternate routes, malformed or absent credentials, recovery flows, and proxy-derived identity.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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