Threat reportVulnerabilityTL-2026-0793
CVE-2026-10520 — Ivanti Sentry Unauthenticated OS Command Injection (Root RCE), added to CISA KEV
CVE-2026-10520 (TL-2026-0793) is a critical-severity software vulnerability scored CVSS 10, first published 2026-06-14. It has no confirmed attribution, affects Ivanti Ivanti Sentry (formerly MobileIron Sentry), references 2 CVEs (CVE-2026-10520, CVE-2026-10523), maps to 17 MITRE ATT&CK techniques (T1059, T1068, T1071), and is covered by 9 detection rules and 17 indicators of compromise.
- CVSS
- 10/10Critical
- CVEs
- 2Referenced vulnerabilities
- Techniques
- 17MITRE ATT&CK
- Actors
- 0Not attributed
- Detection rules
- 9SPL · KQL · Sigma
- IOCs
- 17Indicators of compromise
Key facts for TL-2026-0793
- Threat ID
- TL-2026-0793
- Severity
- CRITICAL
- CVSS
- 10 (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H)
- Status
- ACTIVE
- Category
- VULNERABILITY
- First published
- Last reviewed
- Attribution confidence
- NONE
- Motivation
- UNKNOWN
- Target sectors
- government, enterprise, financial, healthcare, technology
- Target regions
- North America, Europe
- Detection rules
- 9
- Indicators of compromise
- 17
Malware and tooling in CVE-2026-10520
Malware and tooling: watchTowr-vs-Ivanti-Sentry-RCE-CVE-2026-10520-CVE-2026-10523
How CVE-2026-10520 works
CVE-2026-10520 is a CVSS 10.0 OS command injection flaw (CWE-78) in Ivanti Sentry that lets a remote, unauthenticated attacker reach root-level remote code execution via the pre-auth endpoint /mics/api/v2/sentry/mics-config/handleMessage. CISA added it to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2026-06-11 with a federal remediation deadline of 2026-06-14, and the Shadowserver Foundation observed mass exploitation within a day of the public watchTowr PoC.
Ivanti Sentry (formerly MobileIron Sentry) is an enterprise mobile gateway that brokers authenticated, policy-controlled access between mobile devices and back-end resources such as Exchange, SharePoint and corporate web services, typically deployed at the network perimeter on port 8443. CVE-2026-10520 is a pre-authentication OS command injection vulnerability (CWE-78) in the Sentry web application that allows a remote, unauthenticated attacker to execute arbitrary operating-system commands as root, the privilege under which the Sentry service process runs.
The defect lives in the ConfigServiceController class, which exposes the endpoint /mics/api/v2/sentry/mics-config/handleMessage via an @PostMapping("/handleMessage") handler. The controller accepts an attacker-controlled `message` parameter and forwards it to ConfigService.handleMessage() with no authentication check and no input validation. ConfigServiceHandler then tokenizes the message string with a StringTokenizer into `command`, `module`, `xpath` and `value` components and routes on the command type. When the command is EXECUTE, ConfigRequestProcessor.handleExecute(xpath, value) is reached, which ultimately calls CommonUtilities.executeNativeCommand() — running the attacker-supplied content of the XML <reqandres> field as a native shell command. A single POST such as `message=execute system /configuration/system/commandexec <commandexec><index>1</index><reqandres>uname -a</reqandres></commandexec>` returns command output in the JSON `data` field, demonstrating unauthenticated root code execution.
Ivanti disclosed CVE-2026-10520 alongside CVE-2026-10523 (an authentication-bypass weakness, CWE-288, CVSS 9.9, allowing creation of arbitrary administrative accounts) on 2026-06-09 and shipped fixes in R10.5.2, R10.6.2 and R10.7.1. watchTowr Labs published full technical analysis plus a public proof-of-concept and detection script on 2026-06-10, and Rapid7 released unauthenticated vulnerability checks the same week. Within roughly a day, the Shadowserver Foundation reported a large volume of exploitation attempts replaying the public PoC; in its own scans Shadowserver found 19 vulnerable instances with at least 2 already backdoored and assessed that the remainder were likely compromised as well. CISA added the CVE to its KEV catalog on 2026-06-11 with a remediation due date of 2026-06-14. The vendor patch removed user control of the `message` parameter (replacing it with a hardcoded command string) and added Apache regex-based rules that force unauthenticated requests to the endpoint through login, so patched instances now answer with a 302 redirect rather than executing commands. Because Sentry sits at the perimeter and processes pre-auth traffic, successful exploitation gives an attacker a root foothold on a trusted device-management chokepoint, enabling credential theft, configuration tampering and lateral movement into the mobile and email infrastructure it fronts.
MITRE ATT&CK techniques used in TL-2026-0793
Execution
T1059 Command and Scripting Interpreter; T1106 Native API
Privilege Escalation
T1068 Exploitation for Privilege Escalation; T1078 Valid Accounts
Command and Control
T1071 Application Layer Protocol
Discovery
T1082 System Information Discovery
Initial Access
T1133 External Remote Services; T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application
Persistence
T1136 Create Account; T1505 Server Software Component
Lateral Movement
T1550 Use Alternate Authentication Material
Credential Access
T1552 Unsecured Credentials; T1555 Credentials from Password Stores
Resource Development
Reconnaissance
T1592 Gather Victim Host Information; T1595 Active Scanning
defense-impairment
Affected products and versions in CVE-2026-10520
- Ivanti — Ivanti Sentry (formerly MobileIron Sentry)
Vulnerable versions: <= R10.5.1; <= R10.6.1; <= R10.7.0
Fixed in: R10.5.2; R10.6.2; R10.7.1
Remediation for CVE-2026-10520
Patches
- Ivanti Sentry R10.5.2
- Ivanti Sentry R10.6.2
- Ivanti Sentry R10.7.1
Immediate actions
- Apply Ivanti Sentry R10.5.2, R10.6.2 or R10.7.1 (whichever matches your branch) on an emergency, out-of-cycle basis — federal CISA KEV deadline was 2026-06-14
- Restrict network exposure of the Sentry management interface (port 8443) and the /mics/ paths to trusted networks only; do not expose to the public internet
- Hunt for compromise: review web logs for unauthenticated POSTs to /mics/api/v2/sentry/mics-config/handleMessage and for <commandexec>/reqandres payloads, audit for unexpected root processes, new/unauthorized administrative accounts (CVE-2026-10523 chain), and modified configuration files
Workarounds
- Block unauthenticated access to /mics/api/v2/sentry/mics-config/ at the perimeter/reverse proxy until patched
- If patching is not immediately possible, take internet-facing Sentry instances offline given confirmed active exploitation and likely compromise
Longer-term hardening
- Place mobile gateways behind a WAF/reverse proxy that enforces authentication and inspects request bodies
- Enforce network segmentation so a compromised Sentry cannot pivot to Exchange/SharePoint/AD
- Deploy EDR or host monitoring on appliances where supported to catch native command execution from the web service user
CVEs associated with CVE-2026-10520
Weaknesses (CWE) in CVE-2026-10520
Timeline of CVE-2026-10520
- CVE-2026-10520 published to NVD with CVSS:3.1 base score 10.0 (vector AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H) and CWE-78.
- Ivanti publishes security advisory disclosing CVE-2026-10520 (OS command injection, CVSS 10.0) and CVE-2026-10523 (authentication bypass, CVSS 9.9) and releases fixed builds R10.5.2, R10.6.2 and R10.7.1.
- watchTowr Labs publishes full technical analysis plus a public proof-of-concept and detection script for CVE-2026-10520 / CVE-2026-10523; active internet scanning for exposed instances begins.
- CISA adds CVE-2026-10520 to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog based on evidence of active exploitation.
- Rapid7 ships unauthenticated vulnerability checks for CVE-2026-10520/10523 in Exposure Command, InsightVM and Nexpose.
- Shadowserver Foundation reports (05:30 a.m. ET) a large volume of exploitation attempts replaying the public PoC; in its own scans it finds 19 vulnerable instances with at least 2 backdoored and assesses the rest likely compromised.
- NVD record for CVE-2026-10520 last modified, reflecting added references and analysis.
- CISA federal remediation deadline (BOD 22-01) for CVE-2026-10520.
Sources cited for CVE-2026-10520
- CISA Adds One Known Exploited Vulnerability to Catalog
- CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog — CVE-2026-10520
- ETR: CVE-2026-10520, CVE-2026-10523 - Multiple critical vulnerabilities affecting Ivanti Sentry (Rapid7)
- More Evidence That Words Don't Mean What We Thought They Meant — Ivanti Sentry Pre-Auth OS Command Injection CVE-2026-10520 (watchTowr Labs)
- watchTowr-vs-Ivanti-Sentry-RCE-CVE-2026-10520-CVE-2026-10523 (PoC / detection script)
- Ivanti Security Advisory — Ivanti Sentry CVE-2026-10520 / CVE-2026-10523
- NVD — CVE-2026-10520
- Critical Ivanti Sentry flaw allows root-level remote code execution (CVE-2026-10520) — Help Net Security
- Ivanti Sentry's CVE-2026-10520 Enables Root RCE (SOCRadar)
- Ivanti Command Injection Flaw Actively Exploited After PoC Release (Cyberpress)
- CVE-2026-10520: Ivanti Sentry Unauthenticated OS Command Injection — How to Find Exposed Instances (HelloRecon)
Detection coverage for TL-2026-0793
As of 2026-06-14, Threadlinqs Intelligence publishes 9 detection rule(s) for TL-2026-0793 across Splunk SPL, Microsoft KQL and Sigma, covering 17 indicator(s) of compromise. The whole corpus is readable without an account; a free account unlocks full detection query text in Splunk SPL, Microsoft KQL and Sigma; paid tiers add raw indicator values, correlation and the MCP server. Threadlinqs MCP server · View plans.