sigmamediumHunting

FortiGate - New Administrator Account Created

Detects the creation of an administrator account on a Fortinet FortiGate Firewall.

MITRE ATT&CK

persistence

Detection Query

selection:
  action: Add
  cfgpath: system.admin
condition: selection

Author

Marco Pedrinazzi @pedrinazziM (InTheCyber)

Created

2025-11-01

Data Sources

fortigateevent

Platforms

fortigate

References

Tags

attack.persistenceattack.t1136.001

Raw Content

title: FortiGate - New Administrator Account Created
id: cd0a4943-0edd-42cf-b50c-06f77a10d4c1
status: experimental
description: Detects the creation of an administrator account on a Fortinet FortiGate Firewall.
references:
    - https://www.fortiguard.com/psirt/FG-IR-24-535
    - https://docs.fortinet.com/document/fortigate/7.6.4/fortios-log-message-reference/398/event
    - https://docs.fortinet.com/document/fortigate/7.6.4/cli-reference/390485493/config-system-admin
    - https://docs.fortinet.com/document/fortigate/7.6.4/fortios-log-message-reference/44547/44547-logid-event-config-objattr
author: Marco Pedrinazzi @pedrinazziM (InTheCyber)
date: 2025-11-01
tags:
    - attack.persistence
    - attack.t1136.001
logsource:
    product: fortigate
    service: event
detection:
    selection:
        action: 'Add'
        cfgpath: 'system.admin'
    condition: selection
falsepositives:
    - An administrator account can be created for legitimate purposes. Investigate the account details to determine if it is authorized.
level: medium