CVE-2023-35082

CVE-2023-35082: Critical Authentication Bypass in Ivanti Endpoint Manager Mobile (EPMM)

AI-generated analysis based on the vulnerability data on this page.

Summary

CVE-2023-35082 is a critical authentication bypass vulnerability affecting Ivanti Endpoint Manager Mobile (EPMM) versions 11.10 and older. The flaw allows unauthenticated remote attackers to access restricted API endpoints without valid credentials. This vulnerability is distinct from CVE-2023-35078, which was disclosed earlier, though both affect the same product family. Due to its network-accessible attack vector, low complexity, and lack of required privileges or user interaction, this vulnerability presents an extreme risk to exposed installations.

Background

Ivanti Endpoint Manager Mobile (formerly MobileIron Core) is a unified endpoint management (UEM) platform widely deployed by enterprises to manage mobile devices, enforce policies, and secure corporate data. EPMM exposes web-based administrative and API interfaces for configuration and integration. Authentication to these interfaces is a critical security control. In mid-2023, Ivanti disclosed that specific API endpoints in EPMM 11.10 and earlier failed to enforce authentication under certain conditions, enabling remote unauthenticated access.

Root Cause

CWE-287: Improper Authentication

The root cause lies in flawed access-control logic within EPMM's API layer. Under specific request conditions, the application fails to validate or enforce authentication tokens/session state before processing API calls. This allows requests to reach restricted endpoints without presenting valid credentials. The flaw is categorized as an authentication bypass rather than a credential-compromise or session-management issue, because the mechanism for verifying identity is circumvented entirely rather than exploited through stolen secrets.

Impact

The CVSS v3.1 vector CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H translates to:

• Attack Vector (AV): Network — Exploitable remotely over the internet.
• Attack Complexity (AC): Low — No special conditions or advanced techniques required.
• Privileges Required (PR): None — No account or elevated access needed.
• User Interaction (UI): None — Fully automated exploitation possible.
• Scope (S): Unchanged — Impact remains within the vulnerable component.
• Confidentiality (C): High — Attackers can access sensitive configuration, device data, or user information.
• Integrity (I): High — Attackers may modify policies, device settings, or administrative configurations.
• Availability (A): High — Attackers can disrupt service or render the management platform unavailable.

With a base score of 9.8, this vulnerability is among the most severe in enterprise software. The combination of trivial remote exploitability and high impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability makes it a prime target for mass exploitation.

Exploitation Walkthrough (Defensive Perspective)

Ethics Note: The following description is provided for defensive awareness, detection engineering, and patch-verification purposes only. It does not contain weaponized exploit code or step-by-step attacker instructions.

Attackers typically identify internet-facing EPMM instances through scanning for known ports, hostnames, or SSL certificate metadata. Once a target is located, the authentication bypass is triggered by crafting API requests that omit or circumvent the expected session validation. Successful exploitation is often evidenced by:

• HTTP 200 responses from administrative API endpoints without a valid session cookie or bearer token.
• Unexpected POST, PUT, or GET requests to paths under /api/ or equivalent management interfaces from unauthenticated source IPs.
• Subsequent follow-on actions such as user enumeration, policy extraction, or device registration modifications.

Because the attack complexity is low and no user interaction is required, automated exploitation at scale is both feasible and historically observed.

Affected and Patched Versions

Administrators should verify their installed version through the EPMM admin console or filesystem and apply the vendor-recommended update immediately.

Remediation

1. Upgrade Immediately — Apply the latest security patch from Ivanti. Given active exploitation (CISA KEV and EUVD), patching should be treated as an emergency-change priority.
2. Restrict Network Exposure — Do not expose EPMM administrative or API interfaces directly to the internet. Place the management plane behind a VPN, corporate firewall, or reverse proxy with strict IP allowlisting.
3. Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) — While this vulnerability bypasses authentication entirely, enforcing MFA for all administrative access reduces risk from related or follow-on attacks.
4. Compensating Controls — If immediate patching is not possible, consider:
   • Blocking inbound traffic to EPMM management interfaces at the perimeter firewall.
   • Monitoring for unauthenticated API requests returning successful responses.
   • Enabling WAF or API-gateway rules that enforce session validation before forwarding requests.

Detection

Security teams should monitor for the following indicators:

• Web/API Logs: Successful HTTP responses (200, 201, 204) to administrative API endpoints without a valid session token or from unexpected source IPs.
• Traffic Anomalies: Spikes in requests to /api/ paths, especially from internet-based scanners or Tor exit nodes.
• Authentication Logs: Gaps or absences in expected authentication events for high-sensitivity API calls.
• File Integrity: Unexpected changes to policies, certificates, or administrator accounts within the EPMM console.
• Threat Intelligence: Correlation of source IPs with known exploitation infrastructure or CISA KEV reporting.

Assessment

CVE-2023-35082 is a textbook example of a high-severity, easily exploitable authentication bypass in a critical enterprise management platform. Its inclusion in the CISA KEV catalog and the EU Exploited Vulnerabilities Database (EUVD-2023-39117, active since 2024-01-18) confirms that threat actors are actively leveraging this flaw in real-world operations. The EPSS score of 0.99999 places it in the top fraction of a percent of all CVEs by probability of exploitation, underscoring the urgency of remediation.

Key Lessons:

1. Internet-facing management planes remain high-value targets. UEM and MDM platforms control the security posture of entire device fleets; their compromise cascades broadly.
2. Authentication bypasses are uniquely dangerous. Because they require no credentials, they bypass identity-centric detection and prevention controls, leaving only network segmentation and patching as reliable defenses.

References

• https://forums.ivanti.com/s/article/CVE-2023-35082-Remote-Unauthenticated-API-Access-Vulnerability-in-MobileIron-Core-11-2-and-older?language=en_US
• https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2023-35082