Threadlinqs IntelligenceStart free

VulnerabilityCVE-2021-22893Published 2021-04-23

CVE-2021-22893 — Pulse Connect Secure

criticalCISA KEVRansomwarePublic exploit4 PoC repos

As of 2025-10-21, CVE-2021-22893 is a CRITICAL-severity vulnerability in Pulse Connect Secure, CVSS v3.1 10, EPSS 47.1% (98.7th percentile). It is listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2021-11-03), with a US federal remediation deadline of 2022-05-03, and CISA links it to known ransomware campaigns. Threadlinqs Intelligence links 1 tracked threat campaign to CVE-2021-22893, most recently “Sen. Wyden Urges Binding Federal Mandate to Purge Internet-Facing Legacy VPNs for Zero-Trust Remote Access”.

CVSS v3.1
10/10Critical
EPSS
47.1%Higher than 98.7% of scored CVEs
CISA KEV
ListedAdded · due 2022-05-03
Tracked threats
1Campaigns referencing it
Priority
10/10Threadlinqs triage score
Published
Updated 2025-10-21
CVSS v3.1 10 (CRITICAL) · EPSS 47.1% (higher than 98.7% of all scored CVEs) · Priority 10/10 · Published 2021-04-23

Last updated:

What is CVE-2021-22893?

Pulse Connect Secure 9.0R3/9.1R1 and higher is vulnerable to an authentication bypass vulnerability exposed by the Windows File Share Browser and Pulse Secure Collaboration features of Pulse Connect Secure that can allow an unauthenticated user to perform remote arbitrary code execution on the Pulse Connect Secure gateway. This vulnerability has been exploited in the wild.

The record classifies CVE-2021-22893 under weakness class CWE-287. Its CVSS v3 base vector states that the flaw is reachable remotely over the network, needs no prior authentication, needs no user interaction, and has high impact on confidentiality, integrity, availability. 1 affected-product entry is recorded, across 1 vendor, listed below. The identifier was first published 1991 days ago.

Severity and exploitation probability

CVSS v3.1 base score
10 — CRITICAL
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS (FIRST)
47.1% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 98.7% of all scored CVEs
CISA KEV
Listed since 2021-11-03, federal remediation deadline 2022-05-03 — used in known ransomware campaigns
Threadlinqs priority
10/10 — CISA lists it as used in ransomware, which Threadlinqs scores at the maximum
Published
2021-04-23, last modified 2025-10-21

Is CVE-2021-22893 being exploited?

CISA added CVE-2021-22893 to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2021-11-03, which means the agency holds evidence of exploitation in the wild; US federal civilian agencies had to remediate it by 2022-05-03 under BOD 22-01. CISA flags the vulnerability as one used in known ransomware campaigns. Weaponised exploit code for CVE-2021-22893 is publicly available. 4 public proof-of-concept repositories are tracked for this identifier. It currently carries a trending score of 43 in the Threadlinqs vulnerability feed.

Affected products and versions

  • (vendor unspecified): Pulse Connect Secure

How to fix CVE-2021-22893

Vendor advisory: https://blog.pulsesecure.net/pulse-connect-secure-security-update/. Because CVE-2021-22893 is KEV-listed, US federal civilian agencies were required to apply the vendor fix, or stop using the product, by 2022-05-03. Apply the vendor fix referenced above to every affected product listed in this record, then confirm the running version against the vendor advisory.

Threat activity tracking CVE-2021-22893

1 tracked threat in the Threadlinqs corpus references CVE-2021-22893, either in the campaign’s CVE list or as an indicator on the campaign record.

Sources

Enriched from CVE.org, NVD, FIRST EPSS, CISA KEV, GitHub Security Advisories, public proof-of-concept repositories. Last verified by Threadlinqs on . This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD.

Other references