Hazard

Is CVE-2021-44168 being exploited?

Confirmed exploited in the wild

CISA has evidence of active exploitation. This is not theoretical risk — someone has already used it against someone.

Fortinet FortiOS Arbitrary File Download

Fortinet · FortiOS

CVSS 3.3 EPSS 0.9% no public exploit indexed Fix deadline passed 24 December 2021

What it is

Fortinet FortiOS "execute restore src-vis" downloads code without integrity checking, allowing an attacker to arbitrarily download files.

Why we say that

  • CISA's federal remediation deadline (2021-12-24) has passed
  • Listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalogue

Every line above comes from a named public source. Where the evidence is thin, we say so rather than inventing confidence — see methodology.

What to do

Apply updates per vendor instructions.

What it costs when this goes wrong

This is where UK enforcement meets the vulnerability record. Where an unfixed vulnerability leads to a breach, the ICO treats it as a security failure under UK GDPR. Recent cases:

All UK cases caused by unpatched software →