{"schema_version":"0.10.0","id":"LR-2026-0403","record_version":1,"title":"Hundreds of FortiGate firewalls compromised by a threat actor using commercial generative AI services (Jan-Feb 2026)","verification":{"human_verified":false,"method":"automated_gate","auto_verified":true,"score":58.2,"score_breakdown":{"source_authority":12.1,"independent_corroboration":20.0,"implicated_party_confirmed":0.0,"citation_integrity":14.0,"specificity":0.0,"completeness":4.16,"unhedged_language":5.0},"checks":{"schema_valid":true,"every_field_cited":true,"quotes_verbatim":true,"source_fetched":true,"distinct_incident":true,"dates_plausible":true,"sources_agree":true,"source_describes_incident":true,"severe_backed_by_source":true,"record_integrity":true,"eligible":true,"about_this_case":true},"gate_version":"gate-2026-10-18.7","cross_check_model":null,"cross_check_agreement":null,"duplicate_of":null,"verified_by":null,"verified_at":"2026-11-01","extraction_run_id":null,"evidence_level":{"level":"confirmed","reason":"2 independent outlets","original_document":null,"reports_total":3,"reports_independent":2,"reports_derivative":0,"developing":false,"disputed":false,"rules_version":"evidence-2026-10-29.1","computed_at":"2026-11-01","history":[{"date":"2026-11-01","from_level":null,"to_level":"confirmed","reason":"2 independent outlets"}]},"sources_hash":"1cdfd7000e1cb58ecd6bfef8775556a412bb346e464d9b210a95a8d651e64eba"},"system":{"model_name":null,"model_version":null,"developer":"unknown","harness":null,"tools_granted":["Impacket scripts","Metasploit modules","hashcat"],"permissions_scope":null,"autonomy_level":"full-auto","guardrails_present":[],"deployment_context":"unknown","tier":null,"lifecycle_stage":null,"integration_type":null,"intended_use":null,"safeguard_state":null,"production_intended":null},"event":{"date_occurred":null,"date_disclosed":"2026-02-20","incident_class":"security_compromise","failure_class":null,"agent_involved":null,"secondary_failure_classes":[],"trigger":"unknown","duration":null,"detection_method":"third_party","summary":"Between January 11 and February 18, 2026, a Russian-speaking threat actor used commercial generative AI services to breach more than 600 FortiGate firewalls in 55 countries. The attacker did not exploit device vulnerabilities; it scanned exposed management interfaces and brute-forced weak, single-factor logins. After gaining access it extracted device configurations and used AI tools to help automate reconnaissance, credential harvesting and movement across networks. In some cases Claude Code was configured to run offensive tools without per-command approval. Amazon learned of the campaign after finding a server hosting its malicious tools, and reported that the attacker moved on when it met patched or locked-down systems. Amazon recommended restricting internet-facing management interfaces, enabling MFA, separating VPN and Active Directory passwords and hardening backup infrastructure.","tags":[],"date_detected":null,"near_miss":null,"root_cause":null,"root_cause_detail":null,"failure_class_detail":null,"responsible_party":"third_party","adversarial_actor":"external_attacker","input_provenance":null,"time_to_contain":null,"operations_paused":null,"remediation":null,"precursor_events":null,"primary_risk":"RK07"},"impact":{"direct_loss_usd":null,"remediation_hours":null,"records_exposed":null,"third_parties_affected_count":null,"severity":"major","severity_because":"Test: many third parties (a stated count of two or more affected parties). Fact: more than 600 FortiGate firewalls across 55 countries were breached.","harm_class":[],"affected_description":"More than 600 FortiGate firewalls across 55 countries","protected_class_involved":null,"data_categories_exposed":[],"loss_range_usd":null,"reversibility":null,"downstream_exposure_count":null},"evidence":{"sources":[{"url":"https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-02-20/hackers-used-ai-to-breach-600-firewalls-in-weeks-amazon-says","publisher":"Bloomberg","date":"2026-02-20","type":"press","title":"Hackers Used AI to Breach 600 Firewalls in Weeks, Amazon Says - Bloomberg","archived_url":null,"attachment":"first_report"},{"url":"https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/amazon-ai-assisted-hacker-breached-600-fortigate-firewalls-in-5-weeks/","publisher":"BleepingComputer","date":"2026-02-21","type":"press","title":"Amazon: AI-assisted hacker breached 600 Fortinet firewalls in 5 weeks - BleepingComputer","archived_url":null,"independence":"independent"},{"url":"https://thehackernews.com/2026/02/ai-assisted-threat-actor-compromises.html","publisher":"The Hacker News","date":"2026-02-21","type":"press","title":"AI-Assisted Threat Actor Compromises 600+ FortiGate Devices in 55 Countries - The Hacker News","archived_url":null,"independence":"independent"}],"per_field_confidence":{"system.tools_granted":"C","system.autonomy_level":"C","event.incident_class":"C","event.detection_method":"C","event.adversarial_actor":"C","event.responsible_party":"C","impact.affected_description":"C","impact.severity":"D","impact.severity_because":"D","event.primary_risk":"D","event.summary":"C","system.deployment_context":"D","event.trigger":"D","context.country":"D","system.developer":"D","event.date_disclosed":"D","context.denominator_available":"D"},"field_citations":{"system.tools_granted":[{"source_index":1,"quote":"In some cases, Claude Code was configured to execute offensive tools on its own, including Impacket scripts, Metasploit modules, and hashcat, without requiring the threat actor to approve each command."}],"system.autonomy_level":[{"source_index":1,"quote":"In some cases, Claude Code was configured to execute offensive tools on its own, including Impacket scripts, Metasploit modules, and hashcat, without requiring the threat actor to approve each command."}],"event.incident_class":[{"source_index":1,"quote":"Amazon is warning that a Russian-speaking hacker used multiple generative AI services as part of a campaign that breached more than 600 FortiGate firewalls across 55 countries in five weeks."}],"event.detection_method":[{"source_index":1,"quote":"Amazon says it learned about the campaign after finding a server hosting malicious tools used to target Fortinet FortiGate firewalls."}],"event.adversarial_actor":[{"source_index":2,"quote":"A Russian-speaking, financially motivated threat actor has been observed taking advantage of commercial generative artificial intelligence (AI) services to compromise over 600 FortiGate devices located in 55 countries."}],"event.responsible_party":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Over the last five weeks, a limited number of hackers broke into more than 600 firewalls across dozens of countries with the help of widely available artificial intelligence tools, according to security research from Amazon.com Inc."}],"impact.affected_description":[{"source_index":1,"quote":"Amazon is warning that a Russian-speaking hacker used multiple generative AI services as part of a campaign that breached more than 600 FortiGate firewalls across 55 countries in five weeks."}],"impact.severity":[{"source_index":1,"quote":"Amazon is warning that a Russian-speaking hacker used multiple generative AI services as part of a campaign that breached more than 600 FortiGate firewalls across 55 countries in five weeks."}],"impact.severity_because":[{"source_index":1,"quote":"Amazon is warning that a Russian-speaking hacker used multiple generative AI services as part of a campaign that breached more than 600 FortiGate firewalls across 55 countries in five weeks."}],"event.summary":[{"source_index":1,"quote":"A new report by CJ Moses, CISO of Amazon Integrated Security, says that the hacking campaign occurred between January 11 and February 18, 2026, and did not rely on any exploits to breach Fortinet firewalls."},{"source_index":1,"quote":"Rather than exploiting zero-days, as we commonly see targeting FortiGate devices, the actor used brute-force attacks with common passwords to gain access to devices."},{"source_index":1,"quote":"Instead, the threat actor targeted exposed management interfaces and weak credentials that lacked MFA protection, then used AI to help automate access to other devices on the breached network."},{"source_index":1,"quote":"In some cases, Claude Code was configured to execute offensive tools on its own, including Impacket scripts, Metasploit modules, and hashcat, without requiring the threat actor to approve each command."},{"source_index":1,"quote":"Amazon says it learned about the campaign after finding a server hosting malicious tools used to target Fortinet FortiGate firewalls."},{"source_index":1,"quote":"The report says that the attacker repeatedly failed when attempting to breach patched or locked-down systems, but instead of continuing to try to gain access, they moved on to easier targets."},{"source_index":1,"quote":"The company recommends that FortiGate admins not expose management interfaces to the internet, ensure MFA is enabled, ensure VPN passwords are not the same as those for Active Directory accounts, and harden backup infrastructure."}]},"notes_on_gaps":"No developer, model version or single model is named; sources name DeepSeek and Anthropic Claude without versions, and the model_name value is a judgement from the list. No deployment context, lifecycle stage, guardrails or safeguard state is stated, so those are omitted. date_occurred uses 2026-01-11 as the start of the stated window and date_disclosed uses the Bloomberg article date 2026-02-20 (judgement). date_detected, time_to_contain, loss, records, data categories, industry and victim country are not stated. third_parties_affected_count is omitted because the 600+ figure counts firewalls, not parties. autonomy_level full-auto is a judgement applied only to the cases where Claude Code ran tools without per-command approval. root_cause infrastructure, responsible_party third_party and the harmful_compliance failure class are judgements. The sources do not say whether model refusals or safeguards were tested or failed, so no D-controls are reported. Amazon's detection date is not given, and the remediation items are recommendations, not reported changes. [case created by the backfill: read by claude-haiku-5-5, backfill-2026-11-01.2, 2026-11-01; not yet reviewed] [2026-11-01: evidence level set: Confirmed (2 independent outlets)]"},"context":{"industry":null,"org_size_band":null,"country":"unknown","denominator_available":false,"denominator":null,"related_incident_ids":[],"systemic_exposure":null,"shared_model_id":null,"upstream_incident_id":null,"incident_evidence":null,"regulatory":null,"coverage":null},"narrative":{"steps":[{"step":"caught","text":"Amazon learned of the campaign after finding a server hosting malicious tools.","quote":"Amazon says it learned about the campaign after finding a server hosting malicious tools used to target Fortinet FortiGate firewalls.","source_index":1,"grade":"C"},{"step":"done","text":"Amazon recommended closing internet exposure of management interfaces, enabling MFA and hardening backup infrastructure.","quote":"The company recommends that FortiGate admins not expose management interfaces to the internet, ensure MFA is enabled, ensure VPN passwords are not the same as those for Active Directory accounts, and harden backup infrastructure.","source_index":1,"grade":"C"}],"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"backfill-2026-11-01.2","extracted_at":"2026-11-01","source_urls":["https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-02-20/hackers-used-ai-to-breach-600-firewalls-in-weeks-amazon-says","https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/amazon-ai-assisted-hacker-breached-600-fortigate-firewalls-in-5-weeks/","https://thehackernews.com/2026/02/ai-assisted-threat-actor-compromises.html"]},"analysis":{"sections":{"timeline":[{"text":"Amazon learns of the campaign after finding a server hosting malicious tools.","quote":"Amazon says it learned about the campaign after finding a server hosting malicious tools used to target Fortinet FortiGate firewalls.","source_index":1,"when":null}]},"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"backfill-2026-11-01.2","extracted_at":"2026-11-01","source_urls":["https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-02-20/hackers-used-ai-to-breach-600-firewalls-in-weeks-amazon-says","https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/amazon-ai-assisted-hacker-breached-600-fortigate-firewalls-in-5-weeks/","https://thehackernews.com/2026/02/ai-assisted-threat-actor-compromises.html"]}}