How severe is CVE-2021-22893?

CVE-2021-22893 has a CVSS score of 10/10, rated CRITICAL. Immediate patching is strongly recommended.

Which products are affected by CVE-2021-22893?

CVE-2021-22893 affects the following products: ivanti connect secure.

How do I patch CVE-2021-22893?

No patch has shipped for CVE-2021-22893 yet — track the ivanti connect secure advisory for a fixed release and apply the workarounds below in the meantime.

How do I detect CVE-2021-22893 across my infrastructure?

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

How do I mitigate CVE-2021-22893 if there is no patch (or I can't update yet)?

Put an independent control in front of the weakness: restrict the affected endpoint or interface to trusted networks, require an additional authentication factor or proxy-level check, and invalidate existing sessions and credentials in case the flaw has already been used. Alongside that, restrict the management interface to trusted networks and apply the vendor's recommended configuration mitigations.

Is CVE-2021-22893 actively exploited in the wild?

Yes. There are 14 known exploit references for CVE-2021-22893, including 12 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-2021-22893?

CVE-2021-22893 has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 47.2%, placing it in the 99th 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. This score warrants monitoring and prompt remediation.

Is CVE-2021-22893 in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog?

Yes. CVE-2021-22893 (Ivanti Pulse Connect Secure Use-After-Free 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-2021-22893?

CVE-2021-22893 is classified as Improper Authentication (CWE-287), Use After Free (CWE-416). These weakness types describe the underlying flaw category, which helps determine the potential impact and the right class of mitigation.

Which products and versions are affected by CVE-2021-22893?

CVE-2021-22893 affects ivanti connect secure (2 versions, e.g. 9.0, 9.1). Check the affected-products list on this page against your deployed version to confirm exposure.

When was CVE-2021-22893 published, and has it been updated?

CVE-2021-22893 was published on April 23, 2021 and was last updated on August 12, 2026. Advisory data evolves as severity scores, affected ranges, and exploit intelligence are revised — always check the latest version of the advisory before acting.

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CISA KEV · ACTIVELY EXPLOITED

CRITICAL severity

CVE-2021-22893 — Connect Secure

CRITICAL

CVE-2021-22893 is a critical-severity (CVSS 10) Improper Authentication 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.

Pulse Connect Secure 9.0R3/9.1R1 and higher is vulnerable to an authentication bypass vulnerability exposed by the Windows File Share Browser and Pulse Secure Collaboration features…

Published

Apr 23, 2021

Updated

Aug 12, 2026

Affected

1 product

Patched

See advisory

Exploits

14 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-2021-22893.

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

47.2%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

High Risk0.00%

Lower risk than most CVEs99th percentile — riskier than 99% of all scored CVEsHighest risk

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

How urgent is this, really

CVE-2021-22893 by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). Outside the shaded patch-first corner.

Where this sits among everything scored

Of 395,249 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the 10–50% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.

Description

Pulse Connect Secure 9.0R3/9.1R1 and higher is vulnerable to an authentication bypass vulnerability exposed by the Windows File Share Browser and Pulse Secure Collaboration features of Pulse Connect Secure that can allow an unauthenticated user to perform remote arbitrary code execution on the Pulse Connect Secure gateway. This vulnerability has been exploited in the wild.

Affected Products

1 product · 36 configurations

Application

connect secureivanti

2 versions

9.09.1

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.