Akira Ransomware Exploits Year-Old SonicWall Flaw in Growing Attack Wave

Akira ransomware exploits SonicWall vulnerability, impacting 250 organizations and collecting $42M in ransoms. Learn about the ongoing threats.

By Content Team

Sep 12, 2025

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Cybercriminals are ramping up Akira ransomware attacks by exploiting a year-old vulnerability in SonicWall firewalls. About 40 attacks hit between mid-July and early August, with another wave following soon after. The attacks target CVE-2024-40766, which affects SSL VPN protocols in multiple SonicWall firewall versions.

Rapid7 reports handling multiple incidents weekly, while Australia's Cyber Security Centre warns of attacks on local organizations. Most victims had patched their systems but failed to reset default passwords during firewall migrations from Gen 6 to Gen 7 devices.

Akira ransomware has already impacted over 250 organizations, collecting $42 million in ransom payments. SonicWall has appeared 14 times on CISA's exploited vulnerabilities list since 2021.

Source: CyberScoop

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