Pulse Connect SecureApplication · Pulsesecure

CVE-2017-11196

HIGH · 8.8 CVSS v3.0 Published 2017-07-12
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
95/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable No privileges

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 · unedited
Pulse Connect Secure 8.3R1 has CSRF in logout.cgi. The logout function of the admin panel is not protected by any CSRF tokens, thus allowing an attacker to logout a user by making them visit a malicious web page.

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 confidence

Pulse Connect Secure 8.3R1 contains a Cross-Site Request Forgery vulnerability in the logout.cgi function of the admin panel. The logout mechanism lacks CSRF token protection, enabling attackers to force authenticated users to log out by tricking them into visiting a malicious webpage that makes a forged request to the logout endpoint.

MitigationImplement CSRF token validation on the logout function, or configure the session cookies with the SameSite=Strict attribute to prevent cross-origin logout requests.

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
Pulse Connect SecureApplication
Affected:= 8.3r1.0

CVSS 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
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify Pulse Connect Secure installation
    Access the admin web interface or check the system for Pulse Connect Secure. The admin panel is typically accessible at https://[hostname]/admin or look for the Pulse Secure login page.
    Affected if The system is running Pulse Connect Secure software
  2. Determine the installed version
    Check the version displayed on the admin login page, in system diagnostics, or via command line using 'get system info' or similar command on the appliance.
    Affected if The version is exactly 8.3r1.0 (8.3R1)
  3. Verify the logout endpoint exists
    Attempt to access or verify the presence of /logout.cgi on the admin interface. This is typically found at https://[hostname]/admin/logout.cgi
    Affected if The logout.cgi endpoint is accessible and responds to requests
  4. Confirm admin panel is exposed
    Verify the admin panel is network-accessible (check listening services, firewall rules, or access the web interface). The vulnerability requires the admin to be authenticated.
    Affected if The admin panel with login functionality is accessible to users who can be tricked into visiting malicious pages

You are affected if you are running Pulse Connect Secure version 8.3r1.0 and the admin panel is accessible, since the logout.cgi function in that specific version lacks CSRF token protection.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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 data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Implement CSRF token validation on the logout function, or configure the session cookies with the SameSite=Strict attribute to prevent cross-origin logout requests.

Fix this in Pulse Connect Secure Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation3.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
8.0 hours of engineering $1,420
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Scan for this in your stack

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2017-11196 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

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.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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