Introduction
Unauthorized configuration changes by users with only read-only admin privileges can undermine the entire security posture of a network. CVE-2025-55148 is a high-severity missing authorization vulnerability in Ivanti Connect Secure, Policy Secure, ZTA Gateway, and Neurons for Secure Access, affecting core access control boundaries in enterprise environments.
Ivanti is a prominent vendor in the enterprise security and IT management sector. Their products are widely deployed in critical infrastructure, healthcare, finance, and government. With a large customer base and a suite of network security solutions, vulnerabilities in Ivanti products can have broad impact across industries.
Technical Information
CVE-2025-55148 is rooted in insufficient authorization checks within the administrative interfaces of several Ivanti products. The vulnerability allows remote authenticated users with read-only admin privileges to perform configuration changes that should be restricted to higher-privilege accounts. This is a classic example of CWE-862, where the software fails to properly enforce authorization boundaries after authentication.
The attack vector requires network access to the admin interface, typically via web-based management portals or protocol endpoints. The core issue is that server-side logic does not correctly distinguish between read-only and full admin privileges when processing configuration change requests. As a result, an attacker with read-only admin credentials can submit requests to change restricted settings, leading to privilege escalation or unauthorized modifications.
No public code snippets or proof of concept have been released. The vulnerability likely stems from inconsistent or missing server-side authorization logic across different code paths in the affected products.
Affected Systems and Versions
- Ivanti Connect Secure before 22.7R2.9 or 22.8R2
- Ivanti Policy Secure before 22.7R1.6
- Ivanti ZTA Gateway before 2.8R2.3-723
- Ivanti Neurons for Secure Access before 22.8R1.4
All configurations where read-only admin accounts exist and have network access to the admin interface are vulnerable.
Vendor Security History
Ivanti has faced multiple critical vulnerabilities in 2025, including:
- CVE-2025-22457 (stack-based buffer overflow in Connect Secure, initially misclassified as low risk)
- CVE-2025-4427 and CVE-2025-4428 (Endpoint Manager Mobile)
- CVE-2025-5456 and CVE-2025-5462 (buffer over-read and heap buffer overflow)
Ivanti has shown improved patch responsiveness but has previously misclassified vulnerabilities, leading to delayed remediation. Their products remain high-value targets for advanced threat actors, especially those focused on privilege escalation and persistent access.