Ivanti Connect Secure Privilege Escalation (CVE-2026-111357): Risk and Mitigation

Escalation Risk in Ivanti Connect Secure

A missing authentication vulnerability affecting critical internal functions in Ivanti Connect Secure (CVE-2026-111357) presents a serious privilege escalation path for authenticated attackers. Rated CVSS 7.0 (High), the flaw allows a local user with low-level access to bypass authentication checks on sensitive internal functions and execute commands with root administrative privileges (CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H).

While the isolated EPSS probability sits at a modest 0.53% (45th percentile)—reflecting the requirement for prior local access—evaluating local privilege escalation vulnerabilities on edge gateways through single metrics is misleading. Ivanti Connect Secure appliances sit directly on the enterprise perimeter. Once an adversary lands even an unprivileged footprint on the device, CVE-2026-111357 provides the exact mechanism needed to break out of restricted shells, disable logging, and establish persistent root access across the internal network segment.

The Exploit Chain: From Low Privilege to Full Takeover

The primary operational threat of CVE-2026-111357 lies in exploit chaining. The vulnerability is designed to be paired alongside remote initial-access vulnerabilities such as CVE-2026-104935 and CVE-2026-118527. In a realistic attack scenario, an unauthenticated remote attacker leverages a web-facing input validation or authorization bypass flaw to gain initial web-service context or low-privileged shell execution. From there, they trigger the unauthenticated internal function exposed by CVE-2026-111357 to elevate privileges straight to root, completing an end-to-end compromise.

Because the underlying weakness involves improper control of untrusted components (CWE-829) and missing functional access control, the flaw carries a high attack complexity (AC:H) under specific timing or environment constraints. However, threat groups targeting SSL-VPN appliances routinely weaponize high-complexity local privilege escalations once automated tooling for the initial remote access vector is stabilized.

Patching and Remediation Guidance

Ivanti has addressed this flaw in updated releases. Organizations running Ivanti Connect Secure versions 25.1.0.0 through 25.1.1.2 must immediately upgrade to version 25.1.1.3 or higher. Deployments operating on the 22.8 train should apply the corresponding vendor patch outlined in Ivanti’s security advisory. Federal agencies and enterprises adhering to CISA BOD 26-04 guidance must remediate or apply vendor-approved mitigations by November 2, 2026.

Before applying patches, security teams should execute Ivanti’s Integrity Checking Tool (ICT) and complete forensic triage requirements. Because this vulnerability allows an attacker who already has initial access to gain full system control, simply updating the firmware will not evict an adversary who has already established persistent backdoors within the underlying OS. If mitigations cannot be immediately applied or suspicious activity is uncovered during forensic triage, disconnect the appliance from the network and initiate incident response protocols.