CVE-2024-39711: Ivanti Connect Secure RCE Vulnerability

CVE-2024-39711 Overview

CVE-2024-39711 is an argument injection vulnerability [CWE-88] affecting Ivanti Connect Secure and Ivanti Policy Secure appliances. The flaw exists in versions of Ivanti Connect Secure prior to 22.7R2.1 and 9.1R18.7, and in Ivanti Policy Secure prior to 22.7R1.1. A remote authenticated attacker with administrative privileges can inject arguments into a command processor to achieve remote code execution on the underlying appliance.

Ivanti Connect Secure provides SSL VPN access to enterprise resources, while Ivanti Policy Secure delivers network access control. Both products are deployed as gateway appliances at network boundaries, which makes successful exploitation a path to deeper network compromise.

Critical Impact

An authenticated administrator can execute arbitrary code on the appliance, fully compromising the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of a security gateway that brokers VPN and network access.

Affected Products

• Ivanti Connect Secure versions prior to 22.7R2.1
• Ivanti Connect Secure 9.x versions prior to 9.1R18.7
• Ivanti Policy Secure versions prior to 22.7R1.1

Discovery Timeline

• 2024-11-13 - CVE-2024-39711 published to NVD
• 2025-07-11 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2024-39711

Vulnerability Analysis

The vulnerability is classified as argument injection [CWE-88]. Ivanti Connect Secure and Policy Secure expose administrative functionality that constructs command-line invocations using attacker-influenced input. When that input is not properly delimited or sanitized, an attacker can introduce additional command-line arguments that change how the underlying program behaves.

Because the impacted code path executes with elevated privileges on the appliance, injected arguments can be leveraged to load attacker-controlled configuration, redirect output, or invoke alternate execution modes. The result is arbitrary code execution in the context of the appliance operating system. The CVSS scope change reflects that exploitation crosses a trust boundary from the management interface to the underlying host.

Root Cause

The root cause is insufficient validation and quoting of parameters passed from an administrative interface into a subprocess invocation. Argument injection differs from classic command injection in that the attacker does not need a shell metacharacter — supplying flags such as --config or -o can be sufficient to alter the behavior of the called binary and trigger code execution.

Attack Vector

Exploitation requires network access to the management interface and valid administrator credentials. An attacker who obtains admin credentials through phishing, credential reuse, or a prior authentication bypass can chain those credentials with CVE-2024-39711 to escape the appliance management plane and run arbitrary commands on the host. The EPSS score for this vulnerability is 9.67% (percentile 93.0), indicating elevated relative likelihood of exploitation activity.

No public proof-of-concept exploit code is referenced in the advisory. The vulnerability mechanism is described in prose because no verified exploit code is available. Refer to the Ivanti Security Advisory for Multiple CVEs for vendor technical context.

Detection Methods for CVE-2024-39711

Indicators of Compromise

• Unexpected child processes spawned by the Ivanti web administration daemon, especially shells or interpreters such as sh, bash, perl, or python.
• Administrative configuration changes followed by outbound network connections from the appliance to unfamiliar IP addresses.
• New or modified files in writable directories on the appliance, including web-accessible paths.
• Authentication events for administrative accounts originating from atypical source IPs or outside change-window hours.

Detection Strategies

• Inspect appliance audit logs for administrative actions that include unusual argument-like substrings such as --, -o, or = embedded in input fields.
• Correlate admin logins with subsequent process creation telemetry from forwarded syslog where available.
• Hunt for known Ivanti post-exploitation patterns, including persistence in /home/runtime/, /data/, and rootkit-style modifications to system binaries reported in prior Ivanti incidents.

Monitoring Recommendations

• Forward Ivanti Connect Secure and Policy Secure syslog to a centralized SIEM and retain administrative API access logs.
• Alert on configuration export, package upload, or integrity check failures reported by the Ivanti Integrity Checker Tool (ICT).
• Monitor egress from VPN appliance management interfaces and restrict it to known administrative destinations.

How to Mitigate CVE-2024-39711

Immediate Actions Required

• Upgrade Ivanti Connect Secure to 22.7R2.1 or later, or to 9.1R18.7 on the 9.x branch.
• Upgrade Ivanti Policy Secure to 22.7R1.1 or later.
• Run the Ivanti Integrity Checker Tool against affected appliances before and after upgrade to validate appliance state.
• Rotate all administrative credentials and review admin account membership for unauthorized additions.

Patch Information

Ivanti has released fixed builds addressing this vulnerability. Customers should consult the Ivanti Security Advisory for Multiple CVEs for the complete patch matrix, download locations, and upgrade prerequisites. Apply the vendor patch on the standard maintenance path; argument injection cannot be reliably remediated through input filtering on the appliance front end.

Workarounds

• Restrict access to the administrative web interface to a small management network or jump host using firewall ACLs.
• Enforce multi-factor authentication for all administrative accounts on the appliance.
• Remove unused administrator accounts and enforce least privilege for remaining accounts.
• Treat any appliance that cannot be patched promptly as an elevated risk asset and monitor it accordingly.

# Example: restrict admin interface to a management subnet using upstream ACLs
# Replace 10.0.10.0/24 with your management network
iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 443 -s 10.0.10.0/24 -j ACCEPT
iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 443 -j DROP