Threats / Ivanti / CVE-2020-8260
CVE-2020-8260
· EUVD no mirror located
· GCVE no mirror located
Verified 2026-08-04
Ivanti Pulse Connect Secure vulnerability
Pulse Connect Secure contains an uncontrolled gzip extraction vulnerability allowing authenticated attackers to execute arbitrary code.
Verdict
Today item — known-exploited.
An authenticated attacker can exploit improper handling of gzip-compressed files in Pulse Connect Secure to achieve code execution. The vulnerability has been observed in active exploitation.
CISA KEV Yes · 2021-11-035EPSS 0.9648 (verify live)6CVSS 7.2 (CISA)4CISA SSVC Exploitation: active · Automatable: no · Impact: total4Exploit Weaponized · public exploit · Metasploit module12
01
Is it exploitable?
— the evidence, ranked above the scoreReported exploitation
15 independent public reports of in-the-wild exploitation are cataloged.Distinct reporting sources (vendor, incident response, government); open them for the underlying claims.
Exploited in the wild
Listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2021-11-03).
Probability (EPSS)
EPSS 0.9648 — modeled likelihood of exploitation activity.EPSS is a daily-changing model output — open the source for today's value.
Severity / affected
CVSS 7.2 (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H) · Affected: Ivanti, Pulse Connect Secure. Confirm exact fixed builds in the vendor advisory.CVSS — CISA-assigned via the ADP container (CVE.org), version 3.1; the CNA left no metrics, so CISA's own score is used ahead of NVD.
Weakness (CWE)
Mapped to CWE-434 Unrestricted File Upload — weakness family: Path traversal / file.CWE — CNA-assigned (CVE.org); the weakness class drives how the flaw is exploited.
CISA SSVC (triage disposition)
Exploitation: active · Automatable: no · Technical Impact: totalCISA's own stakeholder-specific triage inputs, published in the CVE record (CISA Coordinator role). NOTE: this is CISA's three decision points; the final Act/Attend/Track decision also requires a Mission & Well-being input not published here, so no overall decision is asserted.
Currency of the record
CISA added this to its KEV catalog 371 days after the CVE record was published.KEV lag = CISA-KEV dateAdded − CVE.org datePublished; a floor on how long the known-exploited flaw sat in the public record before the federal catalog listed it. Severity/weakness here is CNA- or CISA-assigned (current at disclosure), independent of NVD's analysis backlog.
Public exploit available
Public exploit tooling is catalogued for this CVE (a functional/weaponized public exploit). Catalog entries: Metasploit module. We link the catalog page(s) only — no payload or code is hosted or restated here.Link, never host — the catalog page is the source; basicsecurity.net does not redistribute payloads.
02
Who’s exploiting it?
— attribution turns risk into urgencyAttribution not established
No confirmed (advisory-backed) threat-actor attribution is established for this record. Absence of a named actor is not absence of compromise — see Coverage & confidence.
03
Why it matters
— the attack path, told twice: adversary, then board1
Front door — unauthenticated access narrative 1
Attacker
I authenticate to Pulse Connect Secure using valid credentials.
Business
Legitimate user accounts or compromised credentials provide initial access to the system.
2
Keys to the kingdom — privilege/identity takeover narrative 2
Attacker
I upload or submit a malicious gzip-compressed file that bypasses extraction validation.
Business
The application processes untrusted archive content without proper integrity or path checks.
3
Lateral reach — past segmentation narrative 3
Attacker
I craft the archive to extract files to arbitrary locations or with malicious payloads.
Business
Uncontrolled extraction writes attacker-controlled data to the server filesystem.
4
Data at risk — exfiltration narrative 4
Attacker
I execute arbitrary code on the target system through the extracted files.
Business
The attacker gains full code execution capability within the Pulse Connect Secure process context.
5
Lights out — disruption & extortion narrative 5
Attacker
I establish persistence and move laterally through the network infrastructure.
Business
The VPN gateway is compromised, enabling breach of protected internal networks and data exfiltration.
04
What to do
— defensible action- Remediate per the vendor advisory — confirm the fixed build for your version and verify exposure.1
Say it to the boardA vulnerability with this evidence profile is a defensible budget line, not a backlog ticket — fund the change against the proof above.
05