Overview
Today, we delve into a significant vulnerability, CVE-2025-55141, that affects various Ivanti products. Ivanti, a renowned IT software company, is known for its extensive suite of applications that aid in IT service management, IT asset management, endpoint security, supply-chain management, and more. This vulnerability is particularly concerning as it affects a wide range of Ivanti products, potentially exposing numerous organizations to system compromise or data leakage.
This vulnerability is a critical security issue that grants unauthorized users with read-only admin privileges the ability to alter authentication-related settings. The significance of this vulnerability is highlighted by its high CVSS severity score of 8.8, emphasizing the potential for serious damage if left unattended.
Vulnerability Summary
CVE ID: CVE-2025-55141
Severity: Critical – 8.8 (CVSS score)
Attack Vector: Network
Privileges Required: Low – Read-only admin privileges
User Interaction: None required
Impact: System compromise and potential data leakage
Affected Products
Escape the Surveillance Era
Most apps won’t tell you the truth.
They’re part of the problem.
Phone numbers. Emails. Profiles. Logs.
It’s all fuel for surveillance.
Ameeba Chat gives you a way out.
- • No phone number
- • No email
- • No personal info
- • Anonymous aliases
- • End-to-end encrypted
Chat without a trace.
Product | Affected Versions
Ivanti Connect Secure | Before 22.7R2.9 or 22.8R2
Ivanti Policy Secure | Before 22.7R1.6
Ivanti ZTA Gateway | Before 2.8R2.3-723
Ivanti Neurons for Secure Access | Before 22.8R1.4
How the Exploit Works
The vulnerability stems from a missing authorization flaw in the affected Ivanti products. An attacker with read-only admin privileges can exploit this flaw to manipulate authentication-related settings. This can allow them to escalate their privileges, gain unauthorized access, or alter system configurations, potentially leading to system compromise or data leakage. The attack can be carried out remotely over a network without any user interaction, making it a particularly dangerous vulnerability.
Conceptual Example Code
Below is a conceptual example of how this vulnerability might be exploited. In this scenario, an HTTP request is used to manipulate authentication settings on a vulnerable endpoint:
POST /api/v1/auth-config HTTP/1.1
Host: target.example.com
Content-Type: application/json
Authorization: Bearer READ-ONLY-ADMIN-TOKEN
{
"auth_method": "None",
"allow_unauthenticated": true
}
In this example, the attacker is using their read-only admin privileges to change the authentication method to ‘None’ and allow unauthenticated access, potentially granting them unrestricted access to sensitive system resources.
Mitigation Guidance
To mitigate this vulnerability, it is recommended to apply the vendor patch as soon as possible. Ivanti has released fixes for all affected products. If immediate patching is not possible, using a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or Intrusion Detection System (IDS) can serve as temporary mitigation, helping to detect and block exploit attempts.