CVE-2016-4786
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedPulse Connect Secure (PCS) 8.2 before 8.2r1, 8.1 before 8.1r3, 8.0 before 8.0r11, and 7.4 before 7.4r13.4 allow remote attackers to cause a denial of service (CPU consumption) via unspecified vectors.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · moderate confidencePulse Connect Secure versions prior to 8.2r1, 8.1r3, 8.0r11, and 7.4r13.4 contain a denial of service vulnerability that allows remote attackers to cause excessive CPU consumption via unspecified vectors, potentially rendering the device unavailable.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data= 8.1= 8.2= 8.0= 8.1r1.0= 7.4CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify the installed product and versionLog into the Pulse Connect Secure or Ivanti Connect Secure admin web interface and navigate to System > Status or use the CLI command 'show system information' to retrieve the exact firmware version number.Affected if The product is Pulse Connect Secure or Ivanti Connect Secure running version 8.2.x prior to 8.2r1, 8.1.x prior to 8.1r3, 8.0.x prior to 8.0r11, or 7.4.x prior to 7.4r13.4.
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Compare version against affected rangesCross-reference the obtained version number against the known vulnerable versions: any build of 8.2 before r1, any build of 8.1 before r3, any build of 8.0 before r11, or any build of 7.4 before 13.4.Affected if The installed version falls within any of these pre-fix release ranges.
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Review CPU usage patternsMonitor device CPU utilization through the admin interface under System > Health or via SNMP/CLI monitoring tools. Look for unexplained spikes or sustained high CPU consumption.Affected if The device exhibits abnormal CPU consumption without corresponding legitimate traffic load, which may indicate exploitation attempts.
The environment is affected if Pulse Connect Secure or Ivanti Connect Secure is running any version prior to 8.2r1, 8.1r3, 8.0r11, or 7.4r13.4.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataUpgrade Pulse Connect Secure to version 8.2r1, 8.1r3, 8.0r11, 7.4r13.4 or later. If immediate patching is not possible, implement rate limiting and monitoring for unusual CPU usage patterns as a temporary measure.
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2016-4786 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2016-4786 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.
- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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