Attack ChainAIDerived
Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain
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AccessCompromise admin credentials
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DeliveryAuthenticate to vTM management console
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ExploitInject OS commands via vulnerable admin function
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ExecutionExecute arbitrary code with system privileges
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ImpactEstablish persistence or pivot to managed systems
Vulnerability Assessment
| Weakness |
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A05:2025 - Injection
ASVS 5.0
V1 - Encoding and Sanitization OS command sanitization, avoid shell exec
MITRE ATT&CK
2 techniques across 1 tactic: Execution The technique list with ATT&CK links and the kill-chain view is part of the Basic plan and up. |
| Exploitation Conditions | Requires valid administrative credentials for Ivanti Virtual Traffic Manager (CVSS PR:H). The attacker must authenticate to the management interface, which is typically exposed on network ports 9090 (HTTP) or 9443 (HTTPS) depending on configuration. No special product features, non-default settings, or optional modules are required - the vulnerability exists in core administrative functionality available to all admin users in default configurations. User interaction is not required (CVSS UI:N). However, the high privilege requirement (admin-level access) is the critical limiting factor: attackers must first compromise administrative credentials through separate means such as credential theft, social engineering, or exploitation of authentication mechanisms. Organizations with strong admin account protection (MFA, IP whitelisting, privileged access management) significantly limit practical exploitability despite the network attack vector and low complexity. |
| Impact | CVSS 7.2 (High) reflects complete system compromise (C:H/I:H/A:H) but requires high privileges (PR:H). Real-world risk is significantly mitigated by the administrative authentication requirement - attackers need existing admin credentials, reducing this from a critical remote vulnerability to a privilege abuse or credential compromise scenario. EPSS data not provided, but similar admin-required RCE vulnerabilities typically show low exploitation probability in the wild. No CISA KEV status indicates no confirmed active exploitation. SSVC assessment suggests lower priority than unauthenticated RCE: exploitation requires credential compromise first (not automatable at scale), though technical impact remains critical. Primary risk scenarios involve insider threats, compromised admin accounts via phishing, or chained exploitation where attackers escalate from lower privileges. Organizations with proper admin account security (MFA, least privilege, session monitoring) face materially lower risk than raw CVSS suggests. However, admin-level command injection eliminates all security boundaries once credentials are obtained, enabling full system takeover, persistence mechanisms, and lateral movement. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | An attacker who has compromised administrative credentials (via phishing, credential stuffing, or insider access) authenticates to the Ivanti Virtual Traffic Manager management interface over the network. Through a vulnerable administrative function - likely a configuration field, diagnostic tool, or management API endpoint - the attacker injects malicious OS commands using shell metacharacters or command chaining syntax. The injected commands execute with the privileges of the vTM process, granting full system access to install backdoors, exfiltrate traffic management configurations containing sensitive network topology data, or pivot to backend application servers managed by the load balancer. |
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Alert meAnalysisAIv1 – May 12, 2026
Remote code execution in Ivanti Virtual Traffic Manager allows authenticated administrators to execute arbitrary OS commands via command injection. Affects all versions before 22.9r4. Attack requires network access and administrative credentials but has low complexity (CVSS AC:L). No active exploitation confirmed at time of analysis, though administrative access requirement significantly limits attack surface compared to unauthenticated RCE vulnerabilities.
RemediationAI
Vendor-released patch: upgrade to Ivanti Virtual Traffic Manager version 22.9r4 or later, as confirmed by Ivanti Security Advisory SA-2026-05 (https://hub.ivanti.com/s/article/May-2026-Security-Advisory-Ivanti-Virtual-Traffic-Manager-vTM-CVE-2026-8051?language=en_US). This is the primary remediation path. Until patching is completed, implement compensating controls targeting the high-privilege requirement: enforce multi-factor authentication on all administrative accounts, restrict administrative console access to specific source IP addresses or management networks using firewall rules or access control lists, enable comprehensive audit logging of all administrative actions to detect potential exploitation attempts, and review administrative account usage for anomalous command execution patterns. Monitor for unusual process spawning from vTM management services. Note that IP-based restrictions may complicate legitimate remote administration and MFA adds operational overhead but both significantly raise attacker cost. Administrative session timeouts should be minimized to reduce credential exposure window. These mitigations do not eliminate the vulnerability but substantially reduce exploitability by protecting the prerequisite administrative access vector.
Affected VersionsENISA
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Technical ContextAI · show details
Ivanti Virtual Traffic Manager (vTM) is a software-based application delivery controller and load balancer. This vulnerability stems from CWE-78 (OS Command Injection), where user-supplied input from an authenticated administrator is improperly neutralized before being passed to system command execution functions. The flaw allows attackers to break out of intended command contexts and inject additional operating system commands. Given the administrative interface context and network attack vector (AV:N), this likely affects the web-based management console or API endpoints that interact with underlying system processes. The CPE string (cpe:2.3:a:ivanti:virtual_traffic_manager:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*) indicates all product variants are affected regardless of platform, with version constraint applying universally up to the fixed release.
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Severity by source
AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Primary rating from Vendor (ivanti) · only source for this CVE.
CVSS VectorVendor: ivanti
DescriptionCVE.org
OS command injection in Ivanti Virtual Traffic Manager before version 22.9r4 allows a remote authenticated attacker with admin privileges to achieve remote code execution.
Executive ViewAI
Ivanti Virtual Traffic Manager versions prior to 22.9r4 contain a remote code execution vulnerability that allows authenticated administrators to execute arbitrary commands, potentially compromising network traffic management and dependent services. While exploitation requires administrative credentials, the low attack complexity means authorized insiders or compromised admin accounts pose significant risk to critical infrastructure handling traffic orchestration.
No vendor-released patch identified at time of analysis. Interim mitigations: (1) Restrict network access to Virtual Traffic Manager admin interfaces using firewalls/network segmentation; (2) implement multi-factor authentication for all administrative accounts; (3) enable and monitor detailed command audit logging on affected systems; (4) rotate administrator credentials and disable unused admin accounts; (5) deploy endpoint detection and response (EDR) solutions on systems with admin access to these appliances.
Threat Intelligence Overview
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
OS command injection occurs when an application passes unsanitized user input directly into system shell commands.
Remote Code Execution represents the critical moment when an attacker successfully runs arbitrary code on a target system without physical access.
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EUVD-2026-29488
GHSA-3rm6-879f-q3r2
NVD
CVE.org
EPSS
Vulnrichment
VulDB
Exploit-DB