Article
Remote Access and IoT Search Engines
Arete Analysis
Recently, Arete Incident Response Tiger Teams (“Arete IR”) have responded to an increased volume of ransomware incidents involving the Sodinikibi, Phobos, and Dharma ransomware variants. The threat actors deploying these variants are known to use anti-forensics techniques to hide their tracks. Once access is gained, they usually delete artifacts which aid cyber investigators with reconstructing steps taken by the threat actors, revealing important information pertaining to the root cause for the computer security event. In most cases, Arete was able to recover critical artifacts to forensically reconstruct the various attacks to identify a single entry point consistent across the three variants: Remote Desktop.
Requirements Businesses have a need to enable workers to access files and business resources remotely from home, hotels, or business relationships. The cheapest way for businesses to allow remote access is to “expose” the Remote Desktop Protocol (“RDP”) to the public internet. The business’ firewall configuration is altered to allow inbound connectivity to the default port 3389, and any connections to that port are automatically forwarded to a specific computer on the network, which is usually a terminal services server. Using only an Internet Protocol (“IP”) address, anyone can attempt to connect to the RDP service.
Limitations on Protocol and Service Most businesses who implement remote access via RDP aren’t aware of the limitations of the service nor do they implement intrusion detection and prevention services. Lastly, many don’t require multi-factor authentication. The downside to allowing any connection into a network is exactly that: any connection can be allowed into the network. This connection can be from anywhere, at any time, for any reason and with any number of authentication attempts. The RDP service itself doesn’t monitor for bad credential combinations and automatically disable or block connection attempts. Port forwarding on firewalls doesn’t inspect the inbound traffic either. Essentially, once a port is exposed to the public internet, anyone, anywhere, can try an unlimited number of usernames and passwords to gain access to that system. Since any number of combinations can be attempted, this makes the configuration vulnerable to credential stuffing, dictionary, and brute force attacks.
Crime of Opportunity Quite often during our investigations, clients ask “was this a targeted attack or a crime of opportunity?” Nine out of 10 times, it’s a crime of opportunity. Then the follow up question “Why us?” Well, for starters, it’s your configuration. These threat actors have their attack mechanics down to a series of steps: 1. Identify target 2. Gain access to target 3. Cover tracks 4. Deploy ransomware 5. Repeat
While they most likely aren’t outright targeting your organization directly, they may be targeting exposed services which link them to your organization.
Internet of Things (IoT) Search Engines
Google, Bing, and DuckDuckGo are three very popular search engines. They’re used to find all sorts of text information or images. These search engines aren’t designed to identify specific computers or services across the world. Rather a different set of search engines can be used to find computers that are connected directly to the internet along with their IP addresses and any other information about the computer involving their geo location, running services, and protocol history. Use caution when visiting these sites as unintended side effects can occur.
https://zoomeye.org
These sites can be used by anyone, anonymously, to identify internet attached devices, the services they’re running and any other information the IoT crawlers can index. The anonymous feature is obtained via the IoT indexer by allowing anyone to query the index stored by the IoT search engine, instead of scanning the node directly. Essentially, this search engine is the phone book, allowing anyone to find street addresses by person’s names or people by street addresses.
A search for “port:3389”, which is the default port for RDP services, can return several million devices. Again, this isn’t real time information because the query is run against the index of the IoT search engine. Once an IP address is identified, additional steps would be needed to test if the IP address is online. Additionally, the resulting information can be filtered by organization, operating system, and country.
Reviewing the results, there’s approximately 1,060 IP addresses that are detected as the Windows 2003 operating system. At face value, this is extremely alarming because Windows 2003 was discontinued during July of 2015. Microsoft officially stopped supporting the operating system as well as providing security updates. Given the information returned from shodan.io, businesses are still relying on it as a means for remote connectivity. Again, these results would need to be qualified as online and available. Regardless, the number is still alarming.
Attack Methodologies
After the threat actor identifies a target, any number of steps can be performed to initiate an attack. Typically, the threat actor will profile the target to gain as much information as possible in order to increase the success of the attack. Profiling can occur in any of the following ways:
Verifying the IP address is online and attempting to brute force access automatically.
Attempting to resolve the IP address to a domain name or company name in order to:
Construct phishing emails for obtaining credentials.
Employ social engineering of employees for obtaining credentials
Research running services against known vulnerabilities to identify pre-built payloads to exploit the services.
Whichever approach the threat actor takes, there’s a good chance they will be successful with gaining unauthorized access to your network.
Preventative Actions
While it’s a waiting game to become the next victim, there are steps you can take to mitigate or prolong falling prey to these threat actor methodologies. Successful mitigation of unauthorized access can be achieved through the proper implementation of layered computer and network security controls. The following steps, while not exhaustive, can be taken to mitigate the exposure of services used by your organization.
Enable Multi-Factor Authentication (“MFA”) on any third party accounts or remote access on any third party accounts or remote access accounts. accounts.
Disable RDP services and port forwarding on firewalls.
Implement VPN services to remotely connect to your organization’s network or leverage to your organization’s network or leverage remote
connection technologies that remote connection technologies that support MFA. support MFA.
Research open source intelligence to develop a public footprint of your organization. a public footprint of your organization.
Train employees on social engineering and phishing email tactics and techniques. phishing email tactics and techniques.
Purchase a cyber insurance policy and familiarize yourself with the preferred vendors yourself with the preferred vendors within your policy. within your policy.
Build a close working relationship with a cyber advisory company.
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Article
FortiBleed Campaign Remains Active
The FBI and Secret Service recently warned that the FortiBleed credential-harvesting campaign remains an active threat targeting internet-facing Fortinet FortiGate firewalls and secure socket layer (SSL) virtual private network (VPN) gateways. The agencies report that attackers continue to scan internet-exposed Fortinet firewalls using previously obtained credentials. This has reinforced assessments made by other security researchers, who have stated that “FortiBleed should be treated as an active access operation, not as a one-time credential leak.”
What’s Notable and Unique
FortiBleed, active since February 2026, begins with widespread reconnaissance to identify internet-facing FortiGate firewalls and SSL-VPN services. Once potential targets are identified, operators attempt to gain initial access through credential stuffing, password spraying, and dictionary attacks using previously compromised credentials.
Following successful access, the attackers deploy the Go-based FortigateSniffer tool on compromised appliances. The tool leverages native FortiOS diagnostic functionality to passively intercept authentication traffic across 24 protocols, enabling the collection of cleartext credentials and password hashes passing through the device.
Successfully recovered credentials are reused to expand access, including Active Directory enumeration, Kerberos validation, SMB authentication, and network share discovery, enabling threat actors to move deeper into the victim environment.
Reporting indicates that initial access brokers (IABs) leveraging the FortiBleed attack chain have facilitated access for downstream ransomware operations, including the INC Ransom/Lynx and Payload ransomware groups. This aligns with Arete’s observations of ransomware groups, including INC, Qilin, and DragonForce, targeting Fortinet FortiGate and VPN infrastructure as an initial access vector.
Remediation
Organizations should restrict internet-facing FortiGate management interfaces, rotate administrative and VPN credentials, review local and privileged accounts, and enforce MFA for remote access. If a potential compromise is detected, organizations should isolate affected systems, conduct threat hunting to determine the scope and identify compromised accounts and devices, and preserve relevant logs and artifacts. Organizations should also report the incident to appropriate authorities and implement targeted eviction measures based on identified threat actor activity.
Analyst Comments
FortiBleed represents an ongoing access-enablement threat, rather than a one-time credential exposure. The campaign’s ability to harvest, validate, and reuse credentials can provide sustained access to victim environments and create opportunities for downstream ransomware activity. Organizations with suspected FortiGate exposure should treat the activity as a potential active compromise and investigate for persistent access, compromised accounts, and lateral movement.
Sources
FortiBleed Operations Continue Targeting Exposed Systems Leading to Reports of Lockouts
FBI Warns FortiBleed Remains Active After Amassing 86,644 Fortinet Device Credentials
Article
Threat Actors Exploiting Critical FortiMail Zero-Day Vulnerability
Fortinet has disclosed a critical vulnerability in FortiMail, tracked as CVE-2026-104286, that is currently being exploited as a zero-day in the wild. The flaw, which carries a Critical CVSS score of 9.8, affects the FortiMail management interface and can allow unauthenticated attackers to write arbitrary files to affected systems, potentially leading to unauthorized code execution and full system compromise. Fortinet has confirmed active exploitation and urged customers to implement mitigations immediately while awaiting security updates.
What’s Notable and Unique
The vulnerability stems from improper restriction of file paths combined with improper neutralization of NULL byte characters. An unauthenticated attacker can exploit the flaw via specially crafted HTTP or HTTPS requests to write arbitrary files on the underlying operating system.
Organizations running FortiMail 7.2 can remediate the vulnerability by upgrading to 7.4 or newer. For customers using affected FortiMail 7.4, 7.6, and 8.0 versions, fixes have not yet been released. However, Fortinet has confirmed that the issue will be addressed in the upcoming 7.4.9, 7.6.7, and 8.0.2 releases.
Until the patched versions become available, Fortinet recommends mitigating risk by disabling the Identity-Based Encryption (IBE) feature. As an additional safeguard, administrators should restrict access to the FortiMail management interface, either by removing internet exposure altogether or limiting access to trusted internal networks only. The advisory also includes log entries that administrators can use to identify potentially compromised appliances.
The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has added CVE-2026-104286 to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog and directed federal agencies to perform forensic triage and mitigation by October 4th.
Analyst Comments
Impacted organizations should review their FortiMail instances to ensure there are no unauthorized logins, examine device settings, evaluate all configurations as potentially compromised, and carry out the necessary recovery procedures. Defenders should immediately implement Fortinet's recommended mitigations, review systems for IOC matches, and prepare to deploy the forthcoming security updates as soon as they become available. It is strongly advised that all enterprises assess their setups to reduce risk, as protecting publicly accessible management interfaces is a fundamental security best practice.
Sources
Improper limitation of a pathname to a restricted directory
Article
Ransomware Trends & Data Insights: September 2026
The Akira ransomware group re-emerged as the most active ransomware threat observed by Arete in September. Overall activity remained relatively distributed among multiple threat groups, with 29 unique groups observed throughout the month. Alongside Akira, INC Ransom and the relatively new Storm group were among the three most active threat actors observed in September. Several new threat groups also emerged during the month, including Hades Team, Shiba, and Vortex (which is suspected to be part of the cluster of threat actors affiliated with the former BlackFile group).
Throughout the month, analysts at Arete identified several trends behind the threat actors perpetrating cybercrime activities:
In September 2026, the ShinyHunters threat group escalated its extortion activity by publicly targeting both the Clop ransomware group and the FBI. The group claimed to have breached and defaced Clop’s infrastructure, demanding an eight-figure ransom, while separately alleging the theft of sensitive FBI-related data and demanding the retraction of statements made in a prior public advisory. In both incidents, ShinyHunters employed similar pressure tactics, including website defacements, repeated public postings, and threats of data disclosure.
ClickFix attacks remained prevalent in September 2026, with ransomware groups including Qilin, Helix, and The Gentlemen leveraging ClickFix lures to facilitate PowerShell-based payload execution and initial access. The technique continues to evolve, combining social engineering with legitimate tools and services to enable compromise and evade detection.
September 2026 saw continued activity from the former BlackFile extortion ecosystem. BlackFile, a data theft and extortion operation active since at least October 2025, rebranded as Redact in May 2026, and since appears to have broken off into several affiliated brands, including Pink, Helix, Falcon, Cinder, and potentially Vortex. During September, some affiliates publicly disputed these associations and claimed to operate independently. However, the coordinated timing, messaging, and near-identical nature of these statements support the assessment that these groups remain part of a broader interconnected ecosystem operating under shared objectives or coordination.
Article
Attack Patterns in Settra Incidents
Recent Settra ransomware incidents demonstrate a consistent operational pattern involving compromised credentials, VPN access, and the deployment of ransomware executables tailored to victim environments. Researchers have observed Settra naming ransomware executables after the targeted organization's domain while following similar attack sequences across multiple intrusions. Arete has also identified overlapping tactics, techniques, and tools in Settra engagements observed from June to August, including the use of MeshAgent for remote access and Bring Your Own Vulnerable Driver (BYOVD) techniques to weaken endpoint security controls.
What’s Notable and Unique
Settra operators have been observed naming ransomware executables after the victim organization's domain, creating a direct association between the payload and the targeted environment.
Initial access vectors have included targeting exposed VPN infrastructure and the use of compromised credentials, reducing the need for traditional exploitation of vulnerabilities.
Arete observed MeshAgent in multiple Settra engagements, which provides threat actors with a mechanism for remote access and continued activity within compromised environments.
Settra engagements have also included Bring Your Own Vulnerable Driver (BYOVD) activity, which can be used to bypass or impair security controls by abusing legitimate but vulnerable drivers.
Analyst Comments
Recent Settra activity demonstrates how ransomware operators can combine credential-based access, remote management tooling, and security control evasion techniques to establish and maintain access before ransomware deployment. The repeated use of similar tools and operational patterns across incidents provides useful detection opportunities for defenders. Organizations should closely monitor VPN authentication activity, unusual use of compromised credentials, unexpected MeshAgent deployment, ransomware executables with victim-specific naming conventions, and suspicious driver activity associated with attempts to disable or bypass endpoint security controls.
Arete’s MDR practice detects Settra’s full attack chain, with special attention to the staging of BYOVD activity for defense evasion. However, for us to detect it, SentinelOne needs to be fully deployed across an environment. To support organizations with full deployment, Arete offers SentinelOne Deployment Assistance. This service is designed to ensure that SentinelOne is deployed across all eligible endpoints, eliminating coverage gaps that could otherwise expose the organization to ransomware, malware, credential theft, and other advanced threats. Through endpoint discovery, inventory reconciliation, and deployment assistance, Arete helps organizations achieve comprehensive protection and maximize the effectiveness of their SentinelOne investment. Contact clientcares@areteir.com to learn more.
Sources
Ready, Settra, Go: New Settra Ransomware Variant Deploys MeshAgent RMM