Focus on pulsesecure vulnerabilities and metrics.
Last updated: 08 Mar 2025, 23:25 UTC
This page consolidates all known Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs) associated with pulsesecure. We track both calendar-based metrics (using fixed periods) and rolling metrics (using gliding windows) to give you a comprehensive view of security trends and risk evolution. Use these insights to assess risk and plan your patching strategy.
For a broader perspective on cybersecurity threats, explore the comprehensive list of CVEs by vendor and product. Stay updated on critical vulnerabilities affecting major software and hardware providers.
Total pulsesecure CVEs: 75
Earliest CVE date: 01 Mar 2016, 20:59 UTC
Latest CVE date: 27 May 2021, 12:15 UTC
Latest CVE reference: CVE-2021-22908
30-day Count (Rolling): 0
365-day Count (Rolling): 0
Calendar-based Variation
Calendar-based Variation compares a fixed calendar period (e.g., this month versus the same month last year), while Rolling Growth Rate uses a continuous window (e.g., last 30 days versus the previous 30 days) to capture trends independent of calendar boundaries.
Month Variation (Calendar): 0%
Year Variation (Calendar): 0%
Month Growth Rate (30-day Rolling): 0.0%
Year Growth Rate (365-day Rolling): 0.0%
Average CVSS: 5.41
Max CVSS: 10.0
Critical CVEs (≥9): 3
| Range | Count |
|---|---|
| 0.0-3.9 | 10 |
| 4.0-6.9 | 53 |
| 7.0-8.9 | 9 |
| 9.0-10.0 | 3 |
These are the five CVEs with the highest CVSS scores for pulsesecure, sorted by severity first and recency.
A buffer overflow vulnerability exists in Windows File Resource Profiles in 9.X allows a remote authenticated user with privileges to browse SMB shares to execute arbitrary code as the root user. As of version 9.1R3, this permission is not enabled by default.
An HTTP Request Smuggling vulnerability in Pulse Secure Virtual Traffic Manager before 21.1 could allow an attacker to smuggle an HTTP request through an HTTP/2 Header. This vulnerability is resolved in 21.1, 20.3R1, 20.2R1, 20.1R2, 19.2R4, and 18.2R3.
A vulnerability in the BIOS of Pulse Secure (PSA-Series Hardware) models PSA5000 and PSA7000 could allow an attacker to compromise BIOS firmware. This vulnerability can be exploited only as part of an attack chain. Before an attacker can compromise the BIOS, they must exploit the device.
A vulnerability in the authenticated user web interface of Pulse Connect Secure < 9.1R9 could allow attackers to conduct Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) through the CGI file.
A vulnerability in the Pulse Connect Secure / Pulse Policy Secure below 9.1R9 could allow attackers to conduct Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) and Open Redirection for authenticated user web interface.
A vulnerability in the Pulse Connect Secure / Pulse Policy Secure < 9.1R9 is vulnerable to arbitrary cookie injection.
A vulnerability in the Pulse Connect Secure < 9.1R9 admin web interface could allow an authenticated attacker to perform an arbitrary file reading vulnerability is fixed using encrypted URL blacklisting that prevents these messages.
A vulnerability in the Pulse Secure Desktop Client < 9.1R9 has Remote Code Execution (RCE) if users can be convinced to connect to a malicious server. This vulnerability only affects Windows PDC.To improve the security of connections between Pulse clients and Pulse Connect Secure, see below recommendation(s):Disable Dynamic certificate trust for PDC.
A vulnerability in the Pulse Secure Desktop Client (Linux) < 9.1R9 could allow local attackers to escalate privilege.
A vulnerability in the Pulse Secure Desktop Client (Linux) < 9.1R9 could allow local attackers to perform buffer overflow.
A vulnerability in the Pulse Secure Desktop Client (Linux) < 9.1R9 could allow local attackers to escalate privilege.
A vulnerability in the Pulse Secure Desktop Client < 9.1R9 could allow the attacker to perform a MITM Attack if end users are convinced to connect to a malicious server.
A vulnerability in the Pulse Secure Desktop Client < 9.1R9 allows a restricted user on an endpoint machine can use system-level privileges if the Embedded Browser is configured with Credential Provider. This vulnerability only affects Windows PDC if the Embedded Browser is configured with the Credential Provider.
A vulnerability in the Pulse Secure Desktop Client < 9.1R9 is vulnerable to the client registry privilege escalation attack. This fix also requires Server Side Upgrade due to Standalone Host Checker Client (Windows) and Windows PDC.
Pulse Secure Desktop Client 9.0Rx before 9.0R5 and 9.1Rx before 9.1R4 on Windows reveals users' passwords if Save Settings is enabled.
An XML external entity (XXE) vulnerability in Pulse Connect Secure (PCS) before 9.1R9 and Pulse Policy Secure (PPS) before 9.1R9 allows remote authenticated admins to conduct server-side request forgery (SSRF) attacks via a crafted DTD in an XML request.
A vulnerability in the authenticated user web interface of Pulse Connect Secure and Pulse Policy Secure < 9.1R8.2 could allow attackers to conduct Cross-Site Scripting (XSS).
A path traversal vulnerability exists in Pulse Connect Secure <9.1R8 that allowed an authenticated attacker via the administrator web interface to perform an arbitrary file reading vulnerability through Meeting.
A path traversal vulnerability exists in Pulse Connect Secure <9.1R8 which allows an authenticated attacker to read arbitrary files via the administrator web interface.
A denial of service vulnerability exists in Pulse Connect Secure <9.1R8 that allows an authenticated attacker to perform command injection via the administrator web which can cause DOS.
An insufficient permission check vulnerability exists in Pulse Connect Secure <9.1R8 that allows an attacker to change the password of a full administrator.
A code injection vulnerability exists in Pulse Connect Secure <9.1R8 that allows an attacker to crafted a URI to perform an arbitrary code execution via the admin web interface.
A cross site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in Pulse Connect Secure <9.1R8 allowed attackers to exploit in the URL used for Citrix ICA.
An information disclosure vulnerability in meeting of Pulse Connect Secure <9.1R8 allowed an authenticated end-users to find meeting details, if they know the Meeting ID.
An improper authentication vulnerability exists in Pulse Connect Secure <9.1RB that allows an attacker with a users primary credentials to bypass the Google TOTP.
A cross site scripting (XSS) vulnerability exists in Pulse Connect Secure <9.1R5 on the PSAL Page.
An issue was discovered in Pulse Secure Pulse Connect Secure before 9.1R8. An authenticated attacker can access the admin page console via the end-user web interface because of a rewrite.
An issue was discovered in Pulse Policy Secure (PPS) and Pulse Connect Secure (PCS) Virtual Appliance before 9.1R8. By manipulating a certain kernel boot parameter, it can be tricked into dropping into a root shell in a pre-install phase where the entire source code of the appliance is available and can be retrieved. (The source code is otherwise inaccessible because the appliance has its hard disks encrypted, and no root shell is available during normal operation.)
A time-of-check time-of-use vulnerability in PulseSecureService.exe in Pulse Secure Client versions prior to 9.1.6 down to 5.3 R70 for Windows (which runs as NT AUTHORITY/SYSTEM) allows unprivileged users to run a Microsoft Installer executable with elevated privileges.
An issue was discovered in Pulse Secure Pulse Connect Secure (PCS) through 2020-04-06. The applet in tncc.jar, executed on macOS, Linux, and Solaris clients when a Host Checker policy is enforced, launches a TCP server that accepts local connections on a random port. This can be reached by local HTTP clients, because up to 25 invalid lines are ignored, and because DNS rebinding can occur. (This server accepts, for example, a setcookie command that might be relevant to CVE-2020-11581 exploitation.)
An issue was discovered in Pulse Secure Pulse Connect Secure (PCS) through 2020-04-06. The applet in tncc.jar, executed on macOS, Linux, and Solaris clients when a Host Checker policy is enforced, allows a man-in-the-middle attacker to perform OS command injection attacks (against a client) via shell metacharacters to the doCustomRemediateInstructions method, because Runtime.getRuntime().exec() is used.
An issue was discovered in Pulse Secure Pulse Connect Secure (PCS) through 2020-04-06. The applet in tncc.jar, executed on macOS, Linux, and Solaris clients when a Host Checker policy is enforced, accepts an arbitrary SSL certificate.
An XSS issue was found with Psaldownload.cgi in Pulse Secure Pulse Connect Secure (PCS) 8.3R2 before 8.3R2 and Pulse Policy Secure (PPS) 5.4RX before 5.4R2. This is not applicable to PCS 8.1RX or PPS 5.2RX.
An information exposure issue where IPv6 DNS traffic would be sent outside of the VPN tunnel (when Traffic Enforcement was enabled) exists in Pulse Secure Pulse Secure Desktop 9.0R1 and below. This is applicable only to dual-stack (IPv4/IPv6) endpoints.
Session data between cluster nodes during cluster synchronization is not properly encrypted in Pulse Secure Pulse Connect Secure (PCS) 8.3RX before 8.3R2 and Pulse Policy Secure (PPS) 5.4RX before 5.4R2. This is not applicable to PCS 8.1RX, PPS 5.2RX, or stand-alone devices.
A crafted message can cause the web server to crash with Pulse Secure Pulse Connect Secure (PCS) 8.3RX before 8.3R5 and Pulse Policy Secure 5.4RX before 5.4R5. This is not applicable to PCS 8.1RX.
Jonathan Looney discovered that the TCP retransmission queue implementation in tcp_fragment in the Linux kernel could be fragmented when handling certain TCP Selective Acknowledgment (SACK) sequences. A remote attacker could use this to cause a denial of service. This has been fixed in stable kernel releases 4.4.182, 4.9.182, 4.14.127, 4.19.52, 5.1.11, and is fixed in commit f070ef2ac66716357066b683fb0baf55f8191a2e.
Jonathan Looney discovered that the TCP_SKB_CB(skb)->tcp_gso_segs value was subject to an integer overflow in the Linux kernel when handling TCP Selective Acknowledgments (SACKs). A remote attacker could use this to cause a denial of service. This has been fixed in stable kernel releases 4.4.182, 4.9.182, 4.14.127, 4.19.52, 5.1.11, and is fixed in commit 3b4929f65b0d8249f19a50245cd88ed1a2f78cff.
In Pulse Secure Pulse Connect Secure (PCS) before 8.1R15.1, 8.2 before 8.2R12.1, 8.3 before 8.3R7.1, and 9.0 before 9.0R3.4 and Pulse Policy Secure (PPS) before 5.1R15.1, 5.2 before 5.2R12.1, 5.3 before 5.3R15.1, 5.4 before 5.4R7.1, and 9.0 before 9.0R3.2, an authenticated attacker (via the admin web interface) can exploit Incorrect Access Control to execute arbitrary code on the appliance.
In Pulse Secure Pulse Connect Secure (PCS) before 8.1R15.1, 8.2 before 8.2R12.1, 8.3 before 8.3R7.1, and 9.0 before 9.0R3.4, an authenticated attacker (via the admin web interface) can exploit Directory Traversal to execute arbitrary code on the appliance.
XSS exists in the admin web console in Pulse Secure Pulse Connect Secure (PCS) 9.0RX before 9.0R3.4, 8.3RX before 8.3R7.1, and 8.1RX before 8.1R15.1 and Pulse Policy Secure 9.0RX before 9.0R3.2, 5.4RX before 5.4R7.1, and 5.2RX before 5.2R12.1.
In Pulse Secure Pulse Connect Secure version 9.0RX before 9.0R3.4, 8.3RX before 8.3R7.1, 8.2RX before 8.2R12.1, and 8.1RX before 8.1R15.1 and Pulse Policy Secure version 9.0RX before 9.0R3.2, 5.4RX before 5.4R7.1, 5.3RX before 5.3R12.1, 5.2RX before 5.2R12.1, and 5.1RX before 5.1R15.1, an authenticated attacker (via the admin web interface) can send a specially crafted message resulting in a stack buffer overflow.
In Pulse Secure Pulse Connect Secure version 9.0RX before 9.0R3.4, 8.3RX before 8.3R7.1, and 8.2RX before 8.2R12.1, users using SAML authentication with the Reuse Existing NC (Pulse) Session option may see authentication leaks.
In Pulse Secure Pulse Connect Secure version 9.0RX before 9.0R3.4 and 8.3RX before 8.3R7.1 and Pulse Policy Secure version 9.0RX before 9.0R3.2 and 5.4RX before 5.4R7.1, an unauthenticated, remote attacker can conduct a session hijacking attack.
In Pulse Secure Pulse Connect Secure version 9.0RX before 9.0R3.4, 8.3RX before 8.3R7.1, 8.2RX before 8.2R12.1, and 8.1RX before 8.1R15.1 and Pulse Policy Secure version 9.0RX before 9.0R3.2, 5.4RX before 5.4R7.1, 5.3RX before 5.3R12.1, 5.2RX before 5.2R12.1, and 5.1RX before 5.1R15.1, the admin web interface allows an authenticated attacker to inject and execute commands.
In Pulse Secure Pulse Desktop Client and Network Connect, an attacker could access session tokens to replay and spoof sessions, and as a result, gain unauthorized access as an end user, a related issue to CVE-2019-1573. (The endpoint would need to be already compromised for exploitation to succeed.) This affects Pulse Desktop Client 5.x before Secure Desktop 5.3R7 and Pulse Desktop Client 9.x before Secure Desktop 9.0R3. It also affects (for Network Connect customers) Pulse Connect Secure 8.1 before 8.1R14, 8.3 before 8.3R7, and 9.0 before 9.0R3.
Certain Secure Access SA Series SSL VPN products (originally developed by Juniper Networks but now sold and supported by Pulse Secure, LLC) allow privilege escalation, as demonstrated by Secure Access SSL VPN SA-4000 5.1R5 (build 9627) 4.2 Release (build 7631). This occurs because appropriate controls are not performed. Specifically, it is possible for a readonly user to change the administrator user password by making a local copy of the /dana-admin/user/update.cgi page, changing the "user" value, and saving the changes.
Pulse Secure Virtual Traffic Manager 9.9 versions prior to 9.9r2 and 10.4r1 allow a remote authenticated user to obtain sensitive historical activity information by leveraging incorrect permission validation.
A stored cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in the web administration user interface of Pulse Secure Virtual Traffic Manager may allow a remote authenticated attacker to inject web script or HTML via a crafted website and steal sensitive data and credentials. Affected releases are Pulse Secure Virtual Traffic Manager 9.9 versions prior to 9.9r2 and 10.4r1.
Pulse Secure Desktop Client 5.3 up to and including R6.0 build 1769 on Windows has Insecure Permissions.
Pulse Secure Client 9.0R1 and 5.3RX before 5.3R5, when configured to authenticate VPN users during Windows Logon, can allow attackers to bypass Windows authentication and execute commands on the system with the privileges of Pulse Secure Client. The attacker must interrupt the client's network connectivity, and trigger a connection to a crafted proxy server with an invalid SSL certificate that allows certification-manager access, leading to the ability to browse local files and execute local programs.
A vulnerability has been discovered in login.cgi in Pulse Secure Pulse Connect Secure (PCS) 8.1RX before 8.1R12 and 8.3RX before 8.3R2 and Pulse Policy Secure (PPS) 5.2RX before 5.2R9 and 5.4RX before 5.4R2 wherein an http(s) Host header received from the browser is trusted without validation.
In Pulse Secure Pulse Desktop Client 5.3RX before 5.3R5 and 9.0R1, there is a Privilege Escalation Vulnerability with Dynamic Certificate Trust.
The Pulse Secure Desktop (macOS) has a Privilege Escalation Vulnerability.
The Pulse Secure Desktop (macOS) 5.3RX before 5.3R5 and 9.0R1 has a Format String Vulnerability.
The Pulse Secure Desktop (macOS) 5.3RX before 5.3R5 and 9.0R1 has a Privilege Escalation Vulnerability.
download.cgi in Pulse Secure Pulse Connect Secure 8.1RX before 8.1R13 and 8.3RX before 8.3R4 and Pulse Policy Secure through 5.2RX before 5.2R10 and 5.4RX before 5.4R4 have an Open Redirect Vulnerability.
The GUI component (aka PulseUI) in Pulse Secure Desktop Linux clients before PULSE5.2R9.2 and 5.3.x before PULSE5.3R4.2 does not perform strict SSL Certificate Validation. This can lead to the manipulation of the Pulse Connection set.
A stack-based Buffer Overflow Vulnerability exists in the web server in Pulse Secure Pulse Connect Secure (PCS) before 8.3R4 and Pulse Policy Secure (PPS) before 5.4R4, leading to memory corruption and possibly remote code execution.
Pulse Secure Pulse One On-Premise 2.0.1649 and below does not properly validate requests, which allows remote users to query and obtain sensitive information.
diag.cgi in Pulse Connect Secure 8.2R1 through 8.2R5, 8.1R1 through 8.1R10 and Pulse Policy Secure 5.3R1 through 5.3R5, 5.2R1 through 5.2R8, and 5.1R1 through 5.1R10 allow remote attackers to hijack the authentication of administrators for requests to start tcpdump, related to the lack of anti-CSRF tokens.
Pulse Connect Secure 8.3R1 has CSRF in logout.cgi. The logout function of the admin panel is not protected by any CSRF tokens, thus allowing an attacker to logout a user by making them visit a malicious web page.
Pulse Connect Secure 8.3R1 has Reflected XSS in launchHelp.cgi. The helpLaunchPage parameter is reflected in an IFRAME element, if the value contains two quotes. It properly sanitizes quotes and tags, so one cannot simply close the src with a quote and inject after that. However, an attacker can use javascript: or data: to abuse this.
Pulse Connect Secure 8.3R1 has Reflected XSS in adminservercacertdetails.cgi. In the admin panel, the certid parameter of adminservercacertdetails.cgi is reflected in the application's response and is not properly sanitized, allowing an attacker to inject tags. An attacker could come up with clever payloads to make the system run commands such as ping, ping6, traceroute, nslookup, arp, etc.
Pulse Connect Secure 8.3R1 has CSRF in diag.cgi. In the panel, the diag.cgi file is responsible for running commands such as ping, ping6, traceroute, traceroute6, nslookup, arp, and Portprobe. These functions do not have any protections against CSRF. That can allow an attacker to run these commands against any IP if they can get an admin to visit their malicious CSRF page.
Pulse Secure Desktop before 5.2R2 and Pulse Secure Installer Service before 8.2R2 and below for Windows allow restricted users to gain privileges via unspecified vectors.
The administrative user interface in Pulse Connect Secure (PCS) 8.2 before 8.2r1, 8.1 before 8.1r2, 8.0 before 8.0r9, and 7.4 before 7.4r13.4 allows remote administrators to enumerate files, read arbitrary files, and conduct server side request forgery (SSRF) attacks via unspecified vectors.
Cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in the administrative user interface in Pulse Connect Secure (PCS) 8.2 before 8.2r1, 8.1 before 8.1r2, 8.0 before 8.0r9, and 7.4 before 7.4r13.4 allows remote attackers to inject arbitrary web script or HTML via unspecified vectors.
Cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in the system configuration section in the administrative user interface in Pulse Connect Secure (PCS) 8.2 before 8.2r1, 8.1 before 8.1r2, 8.0 before 8.0r9, and 7.4 before 7.4r13.4 allows remote attackers to inject arbitrary web script or HTML via unspecified vectors.
Pulse Connect Secure (PCS) 8.2 before 8.2r1, 8.1 before 8.1r2, 8.0 before 8.0r10, and 7.4 before 7.4r13.4 allow remote attackers to read an unspecified system file via unknown vectors.
Pulse Connect Secure (PCS) 8.2 before 8.2r1, 8.1 before 8.1r2, 8.0 before 8.0r10, and 7.4 before 7.4r13.4 allow remote attackers to read sensitive system authentication files in an unspecified directory via unknown vectors.
Pulse Connect Secure (PCS) 8.2 before 8.2r1, 8.1 before 8.1r3, 8.0 before 8.0r11, and 7.4 before 7.4r13.4 allow remote attackers to cause a denial of service (CPU consumption) via unspecified vectors.
The Terminal Services Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) client session restrictions feature in Pulse Connect Secure (aka PCS) 8.1R7 and 8.2R1 allow remote authenticated users to bypass intended access restrictions via unspecified vectors.
The fmtstr function in crypto/bio/b_print.c in OpenSSL 1.0.1 before 1.0.1s and 1.0.2 before 1.0.2g improperly calculates string lengths, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (overflow and out-of-bounds read) or possibly have unspecified other impact via a long string, as demonstrated by a large amount of ASN.1 data, a different vulnerability than CVE-2016-2842.
The SSLv2 protocol, as used in OpenSSL before 1.0.1s and 1.0.2 before 1.0.2g and other products, requires a server to send a ServerVerify message before establishing that a client possesses certain plaintext RSA data, which makes it easier for remote attackers to decrypt TLS ciphertext data by leveraging a Bleichenbacher RSA padding oracle, aka a "DROWN" attack.