Ivanti Virtual Traffic Manager: authentication bypass flaw under attack

What is affected

Ivanti Virtual Traffic Manager is mostly run by companies, schools and public bodies, not on home computers. You are unlikely to have it yourself, but organisations that hold your data may. Breaches that start with flaws like this one are how personal data ends up leaked.

Ivanti Virtual Traffic Manager contains an authentication bypass vulnerability that allows a remote, unauthenticated attacker to create a chosen administrator account.

What an attacker can do

This is a authentication bypass flaw. It lets an attacker get in without a valid username and password and act as a legitimate user, often as an administrator.

How it is reached

Over the internet or network

Access the attacker needs

No account needed

Does the victim have to do something?

No, works without the victim doing anything

What to do

1. At home: nothing to install. Keep your own devices updated and use a different password for every service, so that a breach at one organisation does not open your other accounts.
2. If you administer Ivanti Virtual Traffic Manager at work: apply the vendor's fix or mitigation now and review logs for signs of compromise, because the flaw was being exploited before it was listed.
3. If the product is past its support date and no fix exists, take it off the internet or retire it.

Apply mitigations per vendor instructions or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable.

Vendor advisories and fixes

• forums.ivanti.comforums.ivanti.com/s/article/Security-Advisory-Ivanti-Virtual-Traffic-Manager-vTM-CVE-2024-

How urgent is it

CISA added this vulnerability to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalogue on September 24, 2024, which means there is reliable evidence of attacks in the wild. US federal agencies must fix it by October 15, 2024, a deadline that has already passed. That deadline does not bind anyone else, but it shows how seriously the agency rates it.

The EPSS model estimates a 100% probability that this flaw will be exploited somewhere in the next 30 days. That is higher than 100.0% of all scored vulnerabilities.

Its CVSS severity score is 9.8 out of 10 (critical), as recorded in the US National Vulnerability Database.

Technical description

Incorrect implementation of an authentication algorithm in Ivanti vTM other than versions 22.2R1 or 22.7R2 allows a remote unauthenticated attacker to bypass authentication of the admin panel.