Threats / Pulse Secure / CVE-2020-8218
CVE-2020-8218
· EUVD no mirror located
· GCVE no mirror located
Verified 2026-06-22
Pulse Secure Connect vulnerability
Code injection vulnerability in Pulse Connect Secure admin interface allows remote arbitrary code execution via crafted URI.
Verdict
Today item — known-exploited.
An unauthenticated or authenticated attacker can inject and execute arbitrary code through the administrative web interface of Pulse Connect Secure by sending a specially crafted URI, leading to complete system compromise.
01
Is it exploitable?
— the evidence, ranked above the scoreExploit available
Public proof-of-concept exploit code is cataloged for this vulnerability.We link the existence of the exploit; we do not host or redistribute payloads.
Reported exploitation
3 independent public reports of in-the-wild exploitation are cataloged.Distinct reporting sources (vendor, incident response, government); open them for the underlying claims.
Exploited in the wild
Listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2022-03-07).
Probability (EPSS)
EPSS 0.32739 — modeled likelihood of exploitation activity.EPSS is a daily-changing model output — open the source for today's value.
Severity / affected
Affected: Pulse Secure, Pulse Connect Secure. Confirm exact fixed builds in the vendor advisory.
Weakness (CWE)
Mapped to CWE-94 Code Injection — weakness family: Injection.CWE assignment from the public NVD record; the weakness class drives how the flaw is exploited.
02
Who’s exploiting it?
— attribution turns risk into urgencyAttribution not established
No confirmed (advisory-backed) threat-actor attribution is established for this record. Absence of a named actor is not absence of compromise — see Coverage & confidence.
03
Why it matters
— the attack path, told twice: adversary, then board1
Front door — unauthenticated access narrative 1
Attacker
I craft a malicious URI containing code injection payload targeting the admin interface.
Business
Administrative access controls are bypassed, exposing the VPN appliance to direct code execution.
2
Keys to the kingdom — privilege/identity takeover narrative 2
Attacker
I submit the URI to the vulnerable endpoint, causing the application to interpret and execute my injected code.
Business
The appliance executes attacker-controlled commands with system privileges.
3
Lateral reach — past segmentation narrative 3
Attacker
I establish persistent access, exfiltrate credentials, and pivot to internal network resources.
Business
Remote access infrastructure is compromised, enabling lateral movement and data theft from protected networks.
04
What to do
— defensible action- Remediate per the vendor advisory — confirm the fixed build for your version and verify exposure.1
Say it to the boardA vulnerability with this evidence profile is a defensible budget line, not a backlog ticket — fund the change against the proof above.
05