Vulnerability report

Exploited in the wild Confirmed confidence In CISA KEV

CVE-2019-11510

Pulse Connect Secure Arbitrary File Access

Pulse Secure / Pulse Connect Secure

Watch CVE-2019-11510 Browse KEV feed
Severity
CVSS 10.0 · Critical
Confidence
Confirmed
Exploit status
Exploited in the wild
EPSS
100.0%
First observed
—
Last observed
—

Decision summary

What security teams need to know first

Direct answers before the deeper technical record.

What it is

CVE-2019-11510 is an unauthenticated vulnerability affecting Pulse Secure Pulse Connect Secure. In Pulse Secure Pulse Connect Secure (PCS) 8.2 before 8.2R12.1, 8.3 before 8.3R7.1, and 9.0 before 9.0R3.4, an...

Is it exploited?

Yes. Previdian tracks this CVE as a known exploited vulnerability. Confidence is confirmed. Listed in CISA KEV. Also confirmed by third-party sources.

Who is affected?

Pulse Secure / Pulse Connect Secure.

What should we do?

Prioritize remediation. Validate affected assets and apply vendor fixes on an accelerated timeline.

Overview

Pulse Connect Secure Arbitrary File Access

In Pulse Secure Pulse Connect Secure (PCS) 8.2 before 8.2R12.1, 8.3 before 8.3R7.1, and 9.0 before 9.0R3.4, an unauthenticated remote attacker can send a specially crafted URI to perform an arbitrary file reading vulnerability .

View vendor advisory (opens in new tab)
Published
08 May 2019
Exploitation Reported
03 Nov 2021
Attack vector
Remote
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None

Tags

ransomware nuclei_scanner malware cisa

CVE References

Exploitation evidence

Why Previdian marks this CVE as exploited

Third-party attestation and first-party sensor observation are shown separately so teams can judge the evidence chain.

Exploited in the wild

CISA

Recorded 03 Nov 2021

A trusted third party reported exploitation.

Used in malware

CISA

Recorded 03 Nov 2021

Malware families have been linked to exploitation of this CVE.

Proof of concept available

GitHub

Recorded 21 Aug 2019

Public scanner or PoC coverage increases practical exploitability.

Known exploited vulnerability sources

Per-source evidence links for KEV attestations are available through the Previdian Pro API.

Learn about Pro API access
Source Added
CISA First 2021-11-03 00:00 UTC
The Shadowserver 2026-05-27 00:00 UTC
The Hacker News 2026-10-09 12:32 UTC

Detection

Operational artifacts and observed signals

Make the evidence actionable in scanner, SOC, and edge-control workflows.

Observed signals

Request targets
User-Agents
Callback hosts
0
0
0

Request targets and User-Agents available in Pro. Callback host details available in Enterprise.

Virtual patch status

No Previdian virtual patch is currently available. Future rules ship for ModSecurity, Cloudflare, and AWS WAF.

Learn about virtual patches →

Scanner Artifacts

Scanner and exploit-framework references linked to this CVE.

Scanner Reference Detected
Nuclei https://github.com/projectdiscovery/nuclei-templates/blob/main/http/cves/2019/CVE-2019-11510.yaml 25 Apr 2025

Risk and context

Severity, weaknesses, and research context

CVSS v3.1

10.0 Critical

Potential damage if exploited. Separate from whether attackers are using it.

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

EPSS

100.0%

Estimated chance of exploitation in the next 30 days. Previdian's warning comes from evidence, not this score.

Weaknesses

Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal') CWE-22

Recent mention · The Hacker News

Flax Typhoon Exploits Five Flaws as CISA Sets October 11 Deadline for Federal Agencies

Ravie LakshmananOct 09, 2026Vulnerability / Cyber Espionage The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on Thursday added five security flaws to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, following their abuse by a China-linked threat actor known...

Read full advisory

All CVSS Scores

CVSS v3.1 10.0 Critical

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

CVSS v3.0 9.9 Critical

CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

CVSS v2.0 7.5 High

AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

All Mentions

Recent mention · The Hacker News

Flax Typhoon Exploits Five Flaws as CISA Sets October 11 Deadline for Federal Agencies

The Hacker News · 09 Oct 2026

Ravie LakshmananOct 09, 2026Vulnerability / Cyber Espionage The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on Thursday added five security flaws to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, following their abuse by a China-linked threat actor known as Flax Typhoon. The vulnerabilities in question are listed below - CVE-2015-3306 (CVSS score: 10.0) - An improper access control vulnerability in ProFTPD that could allow remote attackers to read and write to arbitrary files via the site cpfr and site cpto commands. CVE-2021-3199 (CVSS score: 9.8) - A path traversal...

Recent mention · The Hacker News

FBI Says China-Linked Hackers Ran Portal Giving Third Parties Access to Stolen Emails

The Hacker News · 08 Oct 2026

Swati KhandelwalOct 08, 2026Data Breach / Cyber Espionage Hackers tied to a Chinese cybersecurity company stole email from government organizations, law enforcement agencies, healthcare systems, and religious institutions in Southeast Asia, the FBI and agencies in 6 other countries said on October 8. The company, Integrity Technology Group, has been sanctioned by the U.S. and the UK. The hackers scanned websites for flaws using a tool containing more than 1,300 scripts, guessed passwords for Microsoft 365 and Exchange accounts, and copied mailboxes using tools designed to collect mail....

Recent mention · TheRegister

FBI seizes hacking tools it says China used to attack NASA, DOE, US Senate and other critical networks

TheRegister · 27 Aug 2026

Beijing's botnets busted

Potential Proof of Concepts

These PoCs are unverified and could contain malware. Use at your own risk.

Pulse Connect Secure SSL VPN Arbitrary File Read

nuclei · Created Unknown

Timeline

From disclosure to observed exploitation

  1. 12:32 UTC

    KEV confirmed by The Hacker News

    Exploitation attested by an external source

  2. 14:20 UTC

    Public PoC available

    Public proof-of-concept code published

  3. 00:00 UTC

    KEV confirmed by The Shadowserver

    Exploitation attested by an external source

  4. 00:00 UTC

    Nuclei template available

    Scanner coverage available

  5. 00:00 UTC

    Added to CISA KEV

    Listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

  6. 00:00 UTC

    First public exploitation report

    Exploit observed in malware

  7. 16:18 UTC

    CVE published

    Vulnerability disclosed publicly

  8. 00:00 UTC

    CVE ID reserved

    Identifier reserved by the CNA

Pro API

Automate this intelligence

Confidence, exploit status, sensor telemetry, PoCs, scanner integrations, mentions, and tags are available programmatically for VM, SOC, and CTI workflows.

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  • Evidence confidence and provenance
  • First-party sensor telemetry
  • PoC and scanner references
  • Affected versions and enrichment
  • Automation-ready JSON delivery

GET /api/v2/pro/kevs/CVE-2019-11510

Sample API response 
{
  "cve_id": "CVE-2019-11510",
  "confidence": "Confirmed",
  "cvss_score": 10.0,
  "cvss_estimated": false,
  "epss_score": 0.99999,
  "exploit_status": {
    "exploited_in_the_wild": true,
    "active_exploitation_observed": false
  },
  "sensor_telemetry": { "attempts": 0, "sensors": 0 }
}