CVE-2025-5450: Ivanti Connect Secure Auth Bypass Flaw

CVE-2025-5450 Overview

CVE-2025-5450 is an improper access control vulnerability affecting the certificate management component of Ivanti Connect Secure and Ivanti Policy Secure. This vulnerability allows a remote authenticated administrator with read-only privileges to modify certificate management settings that should be restricted to higher-privileged accounts. This represents a broken access control condition where role-based access control (RBAC) enforcement fails to properly validate user permissions before allowing configuration changes.

Critical Impact
Authenticated read-only administrators can escalate their privileges to modify certificate management settings, potentially compromising the integrity of TLS/SSL certificate configurations on affected Ivanti appliances.

Affected Products

Ivanti Connect Secure versions before 22.7R2.8
Ivanti Policy Secure versions before 22.7R1.5
Ivanti Connect Secure 22.7 through 22.7R2.7

Discovery Timeline

July 8, 2025 - CVE-2025-5450 published to NVD
July 15, 2025 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-5450

Vulnerability Analysis

This vulnerability stems from inadequate access control enforcement within the certificate management module of Ivanti's secure access solutions. The flaw exists in the authorization logic that governs administrative actions on certificate settings. When an authenticated administrator with read-only privileges attempts to modify certificate management configurations, the application fails to properly validate whether the user has the required write permissions before processing the request.

The network-accessible nature of this vulnerability means that any authenticated read-only admin with network access to the management interface can exploit this flaw. While the vulnerability requires high-privilege authentication (admin account), the impact is limited to integrity compromise of certificate settings without affecting confidentiality or availability.

Root Cause

The root cause of CVE-2025-5450 is classified as CWE-602 (Client-Side Enforcement of Server-Side Security). The certificate management component relies on client-side enforcement of access controls rather than implementing proper server-side validation. This architectural weakness allows authenticated users to bypass intended restrictions by directly submitting requests to the server, circumventing any client-side permission checks.

The server-side code path for certificate management operations fails to re-validate the authenticated user's role and permissions before executing privileged operations, resulting in the access control bypass.

Attack Vector

The attack requires an authenticated session with read-only administrative privileges on the Ivanti Connect Secure or Policy Secure management interface. An attacker with valid read-only admin credentials can:

Authenticate to the administrative web interface
Access the certificate management section
Submit modification requests directly to the server
Bypass client-side access restrictions that would normally prevent read-only admins from making changes

The vulnerability manifests in the authorization checks performed by the certificate management component. When processing modification requests, the server accepts changes from read-only administrators that should be rejected based on their assigned role permissions. See the Ivanti Security Advisory for additional technical details.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-5450

Indicators of Compromise

Unexpected certificate configuration changes recorded in audit logs by read-only admin accounts
Administrative session activity from read-only users accessing certificate management endpoints
Configuration modification events that don't correlate with accounts having write permissions

Detection Strategies

Monitor administrative audit logs for certificate management changes attributed to read-only admin accounts
Implement alerting rules that trigger when read-only administrators access or modify certificate settings
Review configuration change history to identify unauthorized modifications to TLS/SSL certificates

Monitoring Recommendations

Enable detailed audit logging for all certificate management operations on Ivanti appliances
Configure SIEM rules to correlate admin role assignments with configuration change events
Regularly review and audit the permission levels assigned to administrative accounts

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-5450

Immediate Actions Required

Upgrade Ivanti Connect Secure to version 22.7R2.8 or later immediately
Upgrade Ivanti Policy Secure to version 22.7R1.5 or later immediately
Review audit logs to identify any unauthorized certificate configuration changes
Audit all read-only administrative accounts and consider temporarily disabling non-essential accounts

Patch Information

Ivanti has released security updates to address this vulnerability. Organizations should upgrade to the following patched versions:

Ivanti Connect Secure: Version 22.7R2.8 or later
Ivanti Policy Secure: Version 22.7R1.5 or later

Detailed patch information and download links are available in the Ivanti Security Advisory for July CVEs.

Workarounds

Limit read-only administrative account access to trusted personnel only
Implement network segmentation to restrict management interface access to authorized IP ranges
Enable multi-factor authentication for all administrative accounts
Consider temporarily revoking read-only admin privileges until patches can be applied

bash

# Review current admin accounts and their privilege levels
# Check audit logs for certificate management activities
# Example: Search for certificate-related changes in Ivanti logs
grep -i "certificate" /var/log/ivanti/admin_audit.log | grep -i "readonly"