CVE-2025-5462 is a high-severity heap-based buffer overflow vulnerability (CWE-122) affecting multiple Ivanti products, including Ivanti Connect Secure, Ivanti Policy Secure, Ivanti ZTA Gateway, and Ivanti Neurons for Secure Access. The flaw exists in versions prior to 22.7R2.8 or 22.8R2 for Connect Secure, 22.7R1.5 for Policy Secure, 22.8R2.3-723 for ZTA Gateway, and 22.8R1.4 for Neurons for Secure Access. This vulnerability allows a remote attacker with no authentication or user interaction to trigger a denial of service (DoS) condition by exploiting a heap-based buffer overflow. The vulnerability is exploitable over the network (AV:N) with low attack complexity (AC:L), no privileges required (PR:N), and no user interaction (UI:N). The impact is limited to availability (A:H), with no confidentiality or integrity impact reported. The vulnerability was publicly disclosed on August 12, 2025, with a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.5 (high). Although no known exploits are currently reported in the wild, the nature of the vulnerability and ease of exploitation make it a significant risk. The buffer overflow could cause the targeted service to crash or become unresponsive, potentially disrupting secure remote access capabilities provided by these Ivanti products. These products are commonly used for secure remote access, zero trust access, and policy enforcement in enterprise environments, making availability disruptions impactful for business continuity and remote workforce operations.

For European organizations, this vulnerability poses a significant risk to the availability of critical remote access infrastructure. Ivanti Connect Secure and related products are widely deployed in enterprises to provide secure VPN and zero trust access solutions. A successful exploitation could cause denial of service, interrupting remote connectivity for employees, partners, and contractors. This disruption could lead to operational downtime, loss of productivity, and potential delays in critical business processes. Organizations in sectors such as finance, healthcare, government, and manufacturing—where secure remote access is essential—may experience heightened impact. Additionally, the lack of confidentiality or integrity impact reduces the risk of data breaches but does not mitigate the operational risks associated with service outages. Given the remote and unauthenticated nature of the exploit, attackers could launch DoS attacks at scale, potentially targeting multiple organizations simultaneously. This could be leveraged as part of broader disruptive campaigns or ransomware attacks that rely on denying access to systems.

Organizations should immediately verify their Ivanti product versions and apply the vendor-released patches or updates that fix this vulnerability (released on August 2, 2025). If patching is not immediately feasible, network-level mitigations such as restricting access to Ivanti Connect Secure and related services to trusted IP ranges can reduce exposure. Implementing Web Application Firewalls (WAFs) or Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS) with signatures or anomaly detection for buffer overflow attempts may provide temporary protection. Monitoring logs and network traffic for unusual connection attempts or service crashes can help detect exploitation attempts early. Additionally, organizations should review and harden remote access policies, enforce multi-factor authentication (even though not required for this exploit, it improves overall security posture), and ensure incident response plans include scenarios for remote access service outages. Regular backups and business continuity plans should be validated to minimize operational impact in case of prolonged denial of service.