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The HIPAA Journal is the leading provider of HIPAA training, news, regulatory updates, and independent compliance advice.

Ivanti Connect Secure Zero Day Exploited in Attacks

A high-severity authentication bypass vulnerability has been identified in the Ivanti Connect Secure (Pulse Connect Secure) enterprise-grade SSL VPN that can allow a remote, unauthenticated malicious actor to execute arbitrary commands, steal credentials, and exfiltrate sensitive data.

Researchers at the cybersecurity firm Volexity identified in-the-wild exploitation of a vulnerability chain involving the authentication bypass vulnerability in the first week of October. The threat actor was able to compromise a fully patched ICS VPN appliance and achieve remote, root-level code execution. The vulnerability has been exploited by malicious actors on limited ICS customers and has been added to CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerability (KEV) Catalog.

Volexity determined that the threat actor exploited three zero-day vulnerabilities in the attack, including the authentication bypass vulnerability and a remote code execution vulnerability, which are jointly tracked as CVE-2026-104935. The vulnerability has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 8.6. Ivanti says the vulnerability has been exploited by malicious actors onlimited ICS customers, and has been added to CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerability (KEV) Catalog. The third zero-day is a privilege escalation vulnerability, which has yet to be patched. Ivanti is working on a patch to fix that flaw, which will be addressed in a future release.

The CVE-2026-104935 vulnerability affects the following Ivanti Connect Secure (ICS) versions, and patches have been released to fix the flaws. Customers are also advised to run the Integrity Checker Tool regularly.

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Affected Versions Fixed versions
25.1.1.1 and prior 25.1.1.2
25.1.2.2 and prior 25.1.3.0, 25.1.3.1
22.8R2.4 and prior 22.8R2.5

Limited indicators of compromise have been identified by Volexity and are detailed in its blog post.

Author: Steve Alder is the editor-in-chief of The HIPAA Journal. Steve is responsible for editorial policy regarding the topics covered in The HIPAA Journal. He is a specialist on healthcare industry legal and regulatory affairs, and has 10 years of experience writing about HIPAA and other related legal topics. Steve has developed a deep understanding of regulatory issues surrounding the use of information technology in the healthcare industry and has written hundreds of articles on HIPAA-related topics. Steve shapes the editorial policy of The HIPAA Journal, ensuring its comprehensive coverage of critical topics. Steve Alder is considered an authority in the healthcare industry on HIPAA. The HIPAA Journal has evolved into the leading independent authority on HIPAA under Steve’s editorial leadership. Steve manages a team of writers and is responsible for the factual and legal accuracy of all content published on The HIPAA Journal. Steve holds a Bachelor’s of Science degree from the University of Liverpool. You can connect with Steve via LinkedIn or email via stevealder(at)hipaajournal.com

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