Pulse Secure Desktop Client
CVE-2020-8254
HIGH
Vulnerability Assessment
| Weakness |
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A01:2025 - Broken Access Control
ASVS 5.0
V5 - File Handling Relative path traversal prevention
|
| Impact | CVSS score of 8.8 (HIGH). Attack characteristics: network attack vector, low complexity, no privileges required, user interaction required. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | This vulnerability can be exploited remotely over the network. Successful exploitation could compromise the high-severity affected system. |
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Alert meAnalysisAI
A vulnerability in the Pulse Secure Desktop Client < 9.1R9 has Remote Code Execution (RCE) if users can be convinced to connect to a malicious server. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
RemediationAI
No vendor patch is available at time of analysis. Monitor vendor advisories for updates. Apply vendor patches when available. Implement network segmentation and monitoring as interim mitigations.
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Technical ContextAI · show details
This vulnerability is classified under CWE-23. A vulnerability in the Pulse Secure Desktop Client < 9.1R9 has Remote Code Execution (RCE) if users can be convinced to connect to a malicious server. This vulnerability only affects Windows PDC.To improve the security of connections between Pulse clients and Pulse Connect Secure, see below recommendation(s):Disable Dynamic certificate trust for PDC. Affected products include: Pulsesecure Pulse Secure Desktop Client.
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- Exploit and PoC references, threat intelligence from 22 sources
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Severity by source
AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Primary rating from NVD · only source for this CVE.
CVSS VectorNVD
DescriptionNVD
A vulnerability in the Pulse Secure Desktop Client < 9.1R9 has Remote Code Execution (RCE) if users can be convinced to connect to a malicious server. This vulnerability only affects Windows PDC.To improve the security of connections between Pulse clients and Pulse Connect Secure, see below recommendation(s):Disable Dynamic certificate trust for PDC.
Threat Intelligence Overview
NVD
CVE.org
EPSS
How this decision was reached
The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.
What every action level means
SSVC AssessmentENISA
Priority Score
Attack Technique
Remote Code Execution represents the critical moment when an attacker successfully runs arbitrary code on a target system without physical access.
Affected Products (CPE)NVD
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A vulnerability in the Pulse Secure Desktop Client < 9.1R9 is vulnerable to the client registry privilege escalation att
Pulse Secure Desktop Client 5.3 up to and including R6.0 build 1769 on Windows has Insecure Permissions. Rated medium se
In Pulse Secure Pulse Desktop Client and Network Connect, an attacker could access session tokens to replay and spoof se
A vulnerability in the Pulse Secure Desktop Client (Linux) < 9.1R9 could allow local attackers to escalate privilege. Ra
A vulnerability in the Pulse Secure Desktop Client (Linux) < 9.1R9 could allow local attackers to perform buffer overflo
A vulnerability in the Pulse Secure Desktop Client (Linux) < 9.1R9 could allow local attackers to escalate privilege. Ra
A vulnerability in the Pulse Secure Desktop Client < 9.1R9 allows a restricted user on an endpoint machine can use syste
The Pulse Secure Desktop (macOS) has a Privilege Escalation Vulnerability. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), this vulnerab
A vulnerability in the Pulse Secure Desktop Client < 9.1R9 could allow the attacker to perform a MITM Attack if end user
In Pulse Secure Pulse Desktop Client 5.3RX before 5.3R5 and 9.0R1, there is a Privilege Escalation Vulnerability with Dy
The Pulse Secure Desktop (macOS) 5.3RX before 5.3R5 and 9.0R1 has a Format String Vulnerability. Rated medium severity (
GitHub PoC
Exploit-DB