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PatchSiren cyber security CVE debrief

CVE-2016-8492 Fortinet CVE debrief

CVE-2016-8492 is a Fortinet FortiGate/FortiOS information-disclosure issue tied to an ANSI X9.31 random number generator implementation. According to the CVE record and NVD, the weakness can enable unauthorized read access to data handled by the device via IPSec/TLS decryption. The CVE was published on 2017-02-08.

Vendor
Fortinet
Product
Unknown
CVSS
MEDIUM 5.9
CISA KEV
Not listed in stored evidence
Original CVE published
2017-02-08
Original CVE updated
2026-05-13
Advisory published
2017-02-08
Advisory updated
2026-05-13

Who should care

FortiGate and FortiOS administrators, especially teams operating VPN, IPSec, or TLS-decrypting gateways that process sensitive traffic. Security teams responsible for perimeter appliances should prioritize inventory and version checks against the affected FortiOS builds listed in the NVD record.

Technical summary

NVD classifies the issue as CWE-200 and assigns CVSS 3.0 vector CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N. The supplied record indicates affected FortiOS 4.3.x builds, including an upper bound of 4.3.18 and several specific 4.3 versions, and the vendor advisory references FG-IR-16-067. The practical impact is confidentiality loss, not integrity or availability impact, when the device is used to decrypt IPSec/TLS traffic.

Defensive priority

Medium. The issue is remotely reachable and can expose confidential traffic, but the CVSS vector indicates high attack complexity and no direct integrity or availability impact.

Recommended defensive actions

  • Check FortiGate/FortiOS inventories against the affected FortiOS versions listed in the NVD record.
  • Review Fortinet advisory FG-IR-16-067 for the vendor’s remediation guidance and update path.
  • Prioritize systems that terminate IPSec VPNs or perform TLS decryption, since those are the data paths implicated by the CVE description.
  • Validate whether any affected appliances are still handling sensitive traffic and accelerate remediation accordingly.
  • Use the official NVD and Fortinet references to confirm the exact fixed version for each deployed branch before making change plans.

Evidence notes

This debrief is based only on the supplied CVE/NVD data and linked references. The NVD record identifies Fortinet as the vendor, lists FortiOS CPE criteria as vulnerable, maps the weakness to CWE-200, and provides the CVSS 3.0 vector. The vendor advisory link in the corpus is FG-IR-16-067; no exploit details or unverified remediation claims are included.

Sources and references

Verified primary and authoritative sources

  • CVE-2016-8492 CVE Program record

    Publisher, destination, and source semantics verified

    URL: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2016-8492

    CVE Program - Official CVE Program record with source-provided CVE metadata.

  • CVE-2016-8492 NVD vulnerability detail

    Publisher, destination, and source semantics verified

    URL: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2016-8492

    NIST National Vulnerability Database - Official NIST NVD detail page and source-specific vulnerability assessment.

Supplemental references

Methodology and review provenance

AI-assisted synthesis based on stored public vulnerability evidence. System validation, approval state, and publication status do not by themselves establish human review of this revision. PatchSiren helps prioritize defensive review and does not prove exposure or remediation on any system.