Critical Ivanti Cloud Appliance Vulnerability Exploited in Active Cyberattacks

Ivanti Cloud Services Appliance versions 4.6 Patch 518 and before contain an OS command injection flaw (CWE-78) that allows a remote, authenticated attacker to achieve remote code execution. The attacker must already hold administrator-level privileges on the appliance, and exploitation is triggered by sending crafted input to the appliance over the network. Successful exploitation yields arbitrary command execution on the CSA, and related reporting indicates nation-state actors have been exploiting Ivanti CSA flaws for network infiltration, including attacks on French government and telecom targets. Only organizations still running CSA 4.6.x are affected, and that product line has reached end-of-life and will not receive further security updates. The vulnerability was added to CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2024-09-13 and carries a very high EPSS score (88.5%, 100th percentile), signaling confirmed and likely ongoing exploitation in the wild.

Do: Because CSA 4.6.x has reached end-of-life, remove CSA 4.6.x from service or migrate to the supported 5.0.x line, as future 4.6.x flaws are unlikely to receive fixes. Given confirmed nation-state exploitation, hunt for signs of compromise such as unexpected admin sessions, processes, or network tunnels, and restrict internet exposure of any remaining 4.6.x appliances in the interim.

CVE-2024-8963 is a path traversal vulnerability (CWE-22) in the Ivanti Cloud Services Appliance (CSA), a virtual appliance used to remotely manage Ivanti Endpoint Manager environments. A remote, unauthenticated attacker can send crafted requests containing directory traversal sequences to reach restricted functionality without any credentials. Successful exploitation grants access to restricted (including administrative) functions on the appliance, and public reporting indicates it has been chained with other CSA zero-day flaws by nation-state attackers to infiltrate networks. All CSA 4.6.x releases before Patch 519 are affected, and the 4.6.x product line has reached end-of-life, meaning future 4.6.x vulnerabilities will not receive fixes. Exploitation is confirmed in the wild: CISA added it to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2024-09-19, and multiple outlets report Chinese-linked actors exploiting CSA zero-days against French government, telecom and other critical-infrastructure targets.

Do: Upgrade CSA 4.6.x to Patch 519 or later, or move to the supported 5.0.x line; because 4.6.x is end-of-life, CISA urges removing CSA 4.6.x from service or migrating to 5.0.x rather than relying on future 4.6.x patches. Until patched, restrict or remove internet exposure of CSA appliances and review logs for unauthenticated access to restricted functionality, since this flaw is being chained with other CSA vulnerabilities in targeted intrusions.