How severe is CVE-2019-11510?

CVE-2019-11510 has a CVSS score of 10/10, rated CRITICAL. Immediate patching is strongly recommended.

Which products are affected by CVE-2019-11510?

CVE-2019-11510 affects the following products: ivanti connect secure.

How do I patch CVE-2019-11510?

No patch has shipped for CVE-2019-11510 yet — track the ivanti connect secure advisory for a fixed release and apply the workarounds below in the meantime.

How do I detect CVE-2019-11510 across my infrastructure?

Inventory every ivanti connect secure deployment and check each version against the affected-products list above.

How do I mitigate CVE-2019-11510 if there is no patch (or I can't update yet)?

Resolve every user-supplied path to its canonical form and reject anything that escapes the intended directory, and run the component under an account that has no read or write access outside the directory it legitimately serves. Alongside that, restrict the management interface to trusted networks and apply the vendor's recommended configuration mitigations.

Is CVE-2019-11510 actively exploited in the wild?

Yes. There are 25 known exploit references for CVE-2019-11510, including 1 documented proof-of-concept exploit on Exploit-DB and 14 in-the-wild exploitations observed on GitHub and other sources. Treat this as actively exploitable and prioritize patching immediately. All exploit code should only be run in an isolated sandbox environment for research or authorized testing — never against production systems without explicit written authorization.

What is the EPSS score for CVE-2019-11510?

CVE-2019-11510 has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 100.0%, placing it in the 100th percentile of all CVEs. EPSS is maintained by FIRST.org and estimates the probability that a vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. A score above 50% indicates significantly elevated exploitation risk — immediate patching is strongly recommended.

Is CVE-2019-11510 in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog?

Yes. CVE-2019-11510 (Ivanti Pulse Connect Secure Arbitrary File Read Vulnerability) was added to CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog on 2021-11-03. CISA required all US federal civilian agencies to remediate this vulnerability by 2022-05-03. The required action was: Apply updates per vendor instructions. This CVE has been used in known ransomware campaigns. Being listed in the KEV catalog is the strongest possible confirmation of active exploitation — treat this as a critical priority.

What type of vulnerability is CVE-2019-11510?

CVE-2019-11510 is classified as Path Traversal (CWE-22). This weakness type describe the underlying flaw category, which helps determine the potential impact and the right class of mitigation. This is a high-impact weakness class that often enables remote code execution or data exposure.

Which products and versions are affected by CVE-2019-11510?

CVE-2019-11510 affects ivanti connect secure (3 versions, e.g. 8.2, 8.3, 9.0). Check the affected-products list on this page against your deployed version to confirm exposure.

Is there exploit tooling available for CVE-2019-11510?

A Nuclei detection template exists for CVE-2019-11510, meaning automated scanners can fingerprint it. Public exploit tooling significantly increases real-world risk — prioritize patching and ensure detection coverage. Exploit tooling should only ever be used in isolated, authorized testing environments.

When was CVE-2019-11510 published, and has it been updated?

CVE-2019-11510 was published on May 8, 2019 and was last updated on June 17, 2026. Advisory data evolves as severity scores, affected ranges, and exploit intelligence are revised — always check the latest version of the advisory before acting.

🛡️

CISA KEV · ACTIVELY EXPLOITED

CRITICAL severity

CVE-2019-11510 — Connect Secure

CRITICAL

CVE-2019-11510 is a critical-severity (CVSS 10) Path Traversal vulnerability in ivanti connect secure. It is in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2021-11-03) and has been used in ransomware campaigns — treat it as actively exploited and patch now. No vendor fix is recorded yet; mitigation options are listed below.

In Pulse Secure Pulse Connect Secure (PCS) 8.2 before 8.2R12.1, 8.3 before 8.3R7.1, and 9.0 before 9.0R3.4, an unauthenticated remote attacker can send a specially crafted URI to perform…

Published

May 8, 2019

Updated

Jun 17, 2026

Affected

1 product

Patched

See advisory

Exploits

25 known

Exploitation data as of Oct 24, 2026 · OSV.dev, NVD, CISA KEV, FIRST.org (EPSS)

Exploitation Status

Actively exploited in the wild

Confirmed by CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2021-11-03 — including use in ransomware campaigns. Federal agencies were required to remediate by 2022-05-03.
CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
A successful exploit gives an attacker total control of the affected component, not partial access.

Exploitation and automatability from CISA (KEV catalog and SSVC triage) for CVE-2019-11510.

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

100.0%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

Very High Risk0.00%

Lower risk than most CVEs100th percentile — riskier than 100% of all scored CVEsHighest risk

Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.

How urgent is this, really

CVE-2019-11510 by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). In the shaded patch-first corner (EPSS 50%+, CVSS 7.0+).

Where this sits among everything scored

Of 395,249 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the ≥ 90% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.

Description

In Pulse Secure Pulse Connect Secure (PCS) 8.2 before 8.2R12.1, 8.3 before 8.3R7.1, and 9.0 before 9.0R3.4, an unauthenticated remote attacker can send a specially crafted URI to perform an arbitrary file reading vulnerability .

Affected Products

1 product · 37 configurations

Application

connect secureivanti

3 versions

8.28.39.0

Exploits & PoCs

Research use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.

EDB-47297webappsmultiple

Pulse Secure 8.1R15.1/8.2/8.3/9.0 SSL VPN - Arbitrary File Disclosure (Metasploit)

by Alyssa Herrera · Aug 21, 2019

Exploit-DB Source

Detection & mitigation playbook

Vendor / appliance

Detect
Inventory every ivanti connect secure deployment and check each version against the affected-products list above.
Remediation status
No patch has shipped for CVE-2019-11510 yet — track the ivanti connect secure advisory for a fixed release and apply the workarounds below in the meantime.
Mitigate without a patch
Resolve every user-supplied path to its canonical form and reject anything that escapes the intended directory, and run the component under an account that has no read or write access outside the directory it legitimately serves. Alongside that, restrict the management interface to trusted networks and apply the vendor's recommended configuration mitigations.

How to detect CVE-2019-11510

A community-maintained Nuclei template exists for this CVE. You can scan for it directly:

nuclei -id cve-2019-11510 -u https://target

Template: Pulse Connect Secure SSL VPN Arbitrary File Read
Severity: critical
Impact: An attacker can access sensitive information stored on the system, potentially leading to further compromise.
Remediation: Apply the latest security patches and updates provided by Pulse Secure.

Template by ProjectDiscovery nuclei-templates (organiccrap), MIT licensed. View the full template. Scan only systems you are authorised to test.

Frequently Asked Questions

O3 Security · Runtime Protection

Is CVE-2019-11510 being exploited in your environment?

Detect and block the exploit chain at execution, on systems you cannot patch yet.

Protect my workloads How runtime protection works