CVE-2025-0282: Ivanti Connect Secure, Policy Secure, and ZTA Gateways Stack-Based Buffer Overflow Vulnerability

CVE-2025-0282 is a stack-based buffer overflow in Ivanti Connect Secure, Policy Secure, and ZTA Gateways. The flaw can allow an unauthenticated attacker to achieve remote code execution on the device. These products often sit at the network edge as VPN or zero-trust gateways, so successful exploitation can give an attacker a foothold for further movement, data access, or ransomware deployment. CISA notes known ransomware use of this vulnerability, which raises the urgency for teams that run the affected software.

Defenders should treat any internet-facing instance as high priority until they confirm they are not running a vulnerable configuration and have completed the required hunt and remediation steps.

How it works

The vulnerability is classified as CWE-121, a stack-based buffer overflow. In this class of flaw, an attacker supplies input that exceeds the bounds of a fixed-size buffer allocated on the stack. When the overflow occurs, it can overwrite adjacent stack data such as return addresses or function pointers. With careful control of the overflow, an attacker can redirect execution to attacker-chosen code.

According to the CISA summary, the overflow in these Ivanti products can be triggered without authentication and can lead to remote code execution. Exact request formats, affected endpoints, or payload construction details are not provided here; teams must obtain those from the vendor advisory and any accompanying technical analysis. The practical outcome is that a remote, unauthenticated party can potentially run arbitrary code with the privileges of the vulnerable process, which on a gateway appliance is often highly privileged.

Am I affected? How to find it in your systems

Ivanti Connect Secure, Policy Secure, and ZTA Gateways are typically deployed as virtual or physical appliances that provide remote access, policy enforcement, or zero-trust network access. They commonly face the internet or sit in DMZs and are managed by network or security operations teams.

Inventory steps:

• Query asset management, CMDB, or network discovery tools for hosts identified as Ivanti Connect Secure, Policy Secure, or ZTA Gateways.
• Review external attack-surface scans and firewall rules for management or VPN portals associated with these products.
• Check appliance management consoles or CLI for the installed product name and version string; compare those values against the fixed versions listed in the vendor advisory. Do not rely on version numbers stated elsewhere—confirm directly with the advisory.
• Note any custom configurations, plugins, or features that might alter the attack surface; the advisory will indicate which configurations are in scope.

For signs of exploitation, review appliance logs, authentication logs, and any web or process telemetry for anomalous unauthenticated requests, unexpected process crashes or restarts, new or unusual outbound connections, or the creation of unexpected files or accounts. CISA requires hunt activities as part of the response; follow the specific hunt guidance in the CISA instructions. If telemetry is limited, assume potential compromise until proven otherwise and prioritize isolation and forensic capture.

How to remediate

Patching is the primary remediation. Apply the vendor-supplied update for the affected product as named in the official advisory. After applying the update, verify the new version string and perform any post-update validation steps the vendor recommends.

CISA’s required action is to apply the mitigations set forth in its instructions, which include conducting hunt activities, taking remediation actions if applicable, and applying updates prior to returning a device to service. Do not return a previously exposed device to production until those steps are complete.

Additional hardening for this class of issue includes:

• Restricting management interfaces to trusted networks or jump hosts.
• Enforcing least privilege on service accounts and administrative access.
• Ensuring appliances are covered by continuous vulnerability scanning and configuration baselines.
• Reviewing and removing any unnecessary features or services that increase the attack surface.

Confirm all version and configuration details against the vendor advisory before declaring systems remediated.

If you can't patch immediately

If an immediate update is not possible, reduce exposure with compensating controls while you prepare the patch window:

• Network segmentation: place the appliance behind additional firewalls or access-control lists that limit source IPs to known, required ranges. Prefer temporary removal from the internet if business impact allows.
• Virtual patching or WAF rules: if a web application firewall or IPS is in the path, apply any vendor- or community-provided signatures that block the overflow trigger; treat these as temporary and validate they do not break legitimate traffic.
• Feature disablement: if the advisory identifies a specific service or feature that can be turned off without breaking critical use cases, disable it until the patch is applied.
• Heightened monitoring: increase logging verbosity, forward logs to a SIEM, and alert on anomalous process behavior, unexpected reboots, or new administrative sessions. Prepare an isolation plan so the device can be taken offline quickly if exploitation indicators appear.

These measures lower risk but do not eliminate it; schedule the official update as soon as possible and complete the CISA-required hunt before restoring full service.

If your data may have been exposed

Actively exploited vulnerabilities of this type have been used by ransomware operators, so any successful compromise of an edge gateway can lead to credential theft, lateral movement, and data exposure. If you discover indicators of compromise or cannot rule out exploitation, treat the incident as a potential breach: isolate the device, preserve forensic evidence, rotate credentials that may have traversed the gateway, and follow your incident-response plan. You can also run a free exposure scan of your email addresses against known breach data sets to check whether related accounts have already appeared in public dumps.