Vulnerability Monitor

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CVE-2020-12880


An issue was discovered in Pulse Policy Secure (PPS) and Pulse Connect Secure (PCS) Virtual Appliance before 9.1R8. By manipulating a certain kernel boot parameter, it can be tricked into dropping into a root shell in a pre-install phase where the entire source code of the appliance is available and can be retrieved. (The source code is otherwise inaccessible because the appliance has its hard disks encrypted, and no root shell is available during normal operation.)


Security Impact Summary

This vulnerability carries a MEDIUM severity rating with a CVSS v3.1 score of 5.5, requiring local system access to exploit with relatively low complexity without requiring user interaction requiring only low-level privileges . The vulnerability impacts confidentiality (data exposure), for affected systems. Impacting 4 products from ivanti, from pulsesecure, from ivanti and 1 other, organizations running these solutions should prioritize assessment and patching.

Historical Context

Reported in 2020, this vulnerability emerged during an era marked by increased sophistication in supply chain attacks, cloud infrastructure vulnerabilities, and software-as-a-service (SaaS) security challenges. Security practices during this period emphasized zero-trust architectures, container security, and API protection.


Published

2020-07-27T23:15:12.497

Last Modified

2024-11-21T05:00:28.783

Status

Modified

Source

[email protected]

Severity

CVSSv3.1: 5.5 (MEDIUM)

CVSSv2 Vector

AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N

  • Access Vector: LOCAL
  • Access Complexity: LOW
  • Authentication: NONE
  • Confidentiality Impact: PARTIAL
  • Integrity Impact: NONE
  • Availability Impact: NONE
Exploitability Score

3.9

Impact Score

2.9

Weaknesses
  • Type: Primary
    NVD-CWE-noinfo

Affected Vendors & Products
Type Vendor Product Version/Range Vulnerable?
Application ivanti connect_secure 9.1 Yes
Application ivanti connect_secure 9.1 Yes
Application ivanti connect_secure 9.1 Yes
Application ivanti connect_secure 9.1 Yes
Application ivanti connect_secure 9.1 Yes
Application ivanti connect_secure 9.1 Yes
Application ivanti connect_secure 9.1 Yes
Application ivanti connect_secure 9.1 Yes
Application ivanti connect_secure 9.1 Yes
Application ivanti connect_secure 9.1 Yes
Application ivanti connect_secure 9.1 Yes
Application pulsesecure pulse_connect_secure ≤ 9.0 Yes
Application ivanti policy_secure 9.1 Yes
Application ivanti policy_secure 9.1 Yes
Application ivanti policy_secure 9.1 Yes
Application ivanti policy_secure 9.1 Yes
Application ivanti policy_secure 9.1 Yes
Application ivanti policy_secure 9.1 Yes
Application ivanti policy_secure 9.1 Yes
Application ivanti policy_secure 9.1 Yes
Application ivanti policy_secure 9.1 Yes
Application ivanti policy_secure 9.1 Yes
Application pulsesecure pulse_policy_secure ≤ 9.0 Yes

References

How SecUtils Interprets This CVE

SecUtils normalizes and enriches National Vulnerability Database (NVD) records by standardizing vendor and product identifiers, aggregating vulnerability metadata from both NVD and MITRE sources, and providing structured context for security teams. For ivanti's affected products, we extract Common Platform Enumeration (CPE) data, Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) classifications, CVSS severity metrics, and reference data to enable rapid vulnerability prioritization and asset correlation. This record contains no exploit code, proof-of-concept instructions, or attack methodologies—only defensive intelligence necessary for patch management, risk assessment, and security operations.