Ivanti Sentry has been hit by active exploitation attempts targeting a perfect-CVSS-10 OS command injection vulnerability (CVE-2026-10520), just one day after a public proof-of-concept exploit was released by security researchers.
The flaw, along with a second critical issue (CVE-2026-10523) in its Sentry mobile gateway product on June 9, 2026, but by the following day, threat actors had already begun scanning and exploiting unpatched systems at scale.
The Shadowserver Foundation reported numerous exploitation attempts targeting CVE-2026-10520, with 19 vulnerable instances identified in its own scans, at least 2 of which had been backdoored.
Ivanti Command Injection Flaw
CVE-2026-10520 is an OS Command Injection flaw (CWE-78) in Ivanti Sentry that carries a perfect CVSS score of 10.0.
The vulnerability resides in the ConfigServiceController class of the Sentry web application, accessible via an unauthenticated HTTP POST request to the endpoint /mics/api/v2/sentry/mics-config/handleMessage.
A user-supplied message parameter is parsed into command, module, XPath, and value components, Ivanti said.
When the command equals "execute", the input flows directly into handleExecute(), which invokes native system commands with no input validation, resulting in root-level remote code execution with zero credentials required.
CVE-2026-10523 is an Authentication Bypass flaw (CWE-288) scoring 9.9 on the CVSS. It enables a remote unauthenticated attacker to create arbitrary administrative accounts and gain full administrative access to a vulnerable Sentry appliance, effectively serving as a companion vulnerability to the RCE flaw above.
Affected Versions and Patches
| Product | Affected Versions | Fixed Versions |
|---|---|---|
| Ivanti Sentry | 10.5.1 and prior | 10.5.2 |
| Ivanti Sentry | 10.6.1 and prior | 10.6.2 |
| Ivanti Sentry | 10.7.0 and prior | 10.7.1 |
Ivanti has made patched ISOs and updater packages available via its support portal. The vendor stated at the time of disclosure that no customers were known to have been exploited, a status that changed rapidly upon PoC availability.
A researcher published a full technical analysis and a working Python-based PoC exploit for CVE-2026-10520 on June 10, 2026, the day after Ivanti’s advisory.
The firm also released a public detection script that enables defenders to rapidly identify exposed instances before patches can be deployed. The patch itself eliminates the injection path by replacing user-controlled input with hardcoded commands.
Geographic telemetry from the Shadowserver Foundation shows the United States bearing the brunt of exposure with 8 vulnerable instances, followed by Mexico (2), Canada (1), and Germany with additional at-risk hosts.
Mitigation
Ivanti strongly recommend treating this as an emergency patch, outside of normal patching cycles, given the trivial exploitation path and live PoC availability. Organizations should:
- Immediately upgrade to Sentry versions 10.5.2, 10.6.2, or 10.7.1
- Audit administrative accounts for unauthorized entries linked to CVE-2026-10523 exploitation
- Block public internet access to the MICS API endpoint (
/mics/api/v2/sentry/mics-config/) if patching is delayed - Monitor for indicators of backdoor implants, particularly on systems internet-exposed prior to June 10, 2026
Ivanti Sentry is widely deployed as an enterprise mobile gateway, routing encrypted traffic to backends including Microsoft Exchange, making successful exploitation a high-impact event with potential access to sensitive corporate email and mobile device management infrastructure.
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