CVE-2018-15865

The Pulse Secure Desktop (macOS) has a Privilege Escalation Vulnerability.

Published: 2018-09-06 Last update: 2026-06-16 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2018-15865 is rated Low Risk (39.6/100): CVSS High severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.32%). Monitor for updates and reassess as exploit intelligence or EPSS changes.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2018-15865

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-06-15 0.06% 0.32% +0.26%
2 2025-03-17 0.04% 0.06% +0.01%
3 2023-03-07 — 0.04% —

Full EPSS history (5 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2018-15865

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.8 3.0 HIGH
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 1.8 5.9 [email protected]
4.6 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P Click to expand
Access vector (AV:L)
Requires local access to the target system.
Access complexity (AC:L)
Exploitation conditions are straightforward and predictable.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:P)
Partial confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:P)
Partial integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:P)
Partial availability impact.
 3.9 6.4 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2018-15865

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2018-15865

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
pulsesecure pulse_secure_desktop_client 5.1r1.0 cpe:2.3:a:pulsesecure:pulse_secure_desktop_client:5.1r1.0:*:*:*:*:macos:*:*
pulsesecure pulse_secure_desktop_client 5.1r1.1 cpe:2.3:a:pulsesecure:pulse_secure_desktop_client:5.1r1.1:*:*:*:*:macos:*:*
pulsesecure pulse_secure_desktop_client 5.1r2.0 cpe:2.3:a:pulsesecure:pulse_secure_desktop_client:5.1r2.0:*:*:*:*:macos:*:*
pulsesecure pulse_secure_desktop_client 5.1r3.0 cpe:2.3:a:pulsesecure:pulse_secure_desktop_client:5.1r3.0:*:*:*:*:macos:*:*
pulsesecure pulse_secure_desktop_client 5.1r3.1 cpe:2.3:a:pulsesecure:pulse_secure_desktop_client:5.1r3.1:*:*:*:*:macos:*:*
pulsesecure pulse_secure_desktop_client 5.1r3.2 cpe:2.3:a:pulsesecure:pulse_secure_desktop_client:5.1r3.2:*:*:*:*:macos:*:*
pulsesecure pulse_secure_desktop_client 5.1r4.0 cpe:2.3:a:pulsesecure:pulse_secure_desktop_client:5.1r4.0:*:*:*:*:macos:*:*
pulsesecure pulse_secure_desktop_client 5.1r5.0 cpe:2.3:a:pulsesecure:pulse_secure_desktop_client:5.1r5.0:*:*:*:*:macos:*:*
pulsesecure pulse_secure_desktop_client 5.1r5.1 cpe:2.3:a:pulsesecure:pulse_secure_desktop_client:5.1r5.1:*:*:*:*:macos:*:*
pulsesecure pulse_secure_desktop_client 5.1r6.0 cpe:2.3:a:pulsesecure:pulse_secure_desktop_client:5.1r6.0:*:*:*:*:macos:*:*
pulsesecure pulse_secure_desktop_client 5.1r7.0 cpe:2.3:a:pulsesecure:pulse_secure_desktop_client:5.1r7.0:*:*:*:*:macos:*:*
pulsesecure pulse_secure_desktop_client 5.1r8.0 cpe:2.3:a:pulsesecure:pulse_secure_desktop_client:5.1r8.0:*:*:*:*:macos:*:*
pulsesecure pulse_secure_desktop_client 5.1r9.0 cpe:2.3:a:pulsesecure:pulse_secure_desktop_client:5.1r9.0:*:*:*:*:macos:*:*
pulsesecure pulse_secure_desktop_client 5.1r9.1 cpe:2.3:a:pulsesecure:pulse_secure_desktop_client:5.1r9.1:*:*:*:*:macos:*:*
pulsesecure pulse_secure_desktop_client 5.1r10.0 cpe:2.3:a:pulsesecure:pulse_secure_desktop_client:5.1r10.0:*:*:*:*:macos:*:*
pulsesecure pulse_secure_desktop_client 5.1rx cpe:2.3:a:pulsesecure:pulse_secure_desktop_client:5.1rx:*:*:*:*:mac_os_x:*:*
pulsesecure pulse_secure_desktop_client 5.3r1 cpe:2.3:a:pulsesecure:pulse_secure_desktop_client:5.3r1:*:*:*:*:macos:*:*
pulsesecure pulse_secure_desktop_client 5.3r1.1 cpe:2.3:a:pulsesecure:pulse_secure_desktop_client:5.3r1.1:*:*:*:*:macos:*:*
pulsesecure pulse_secure_desktop_client 5.3r2 cpe:2.3:a:pulsesecure:pulse_secure_desktop_client:5.3r2:*:*:*:*:macos:*:*
pulsesecure pulse_secure_desktop_client 5.3r3 cpe:2.3:a:pulsesecure:pulse_secure_desktop_client:5.3r3:*:*:*:*:macos:*:*
pulsesecure pulse_secure_desktop_client 5.3r4 cpe:2.3:a:pulsesecure:pulse_secure_desktop_client:5.3r4:*:*:*:*:macos:*:*
pulsesecure pulse_secure_desktop_client 5.3r4.1 cpe:2.3:a:pulsesecure:pulse_secure_desktop_client:5.3r4.1:*:*:*:*:macos:*:*
pulsesecure pulse_secure_desktop_client 5.3r4.2 cpe:2.3:a:pulsesecure:pulse_secure_desktop_client:5.3r4.2:*:*:*:*:macos:*:*
pulsesecure pulse_secure_desktop_client 5.3r5 cpe:2.3:a:pulsesecure:pulse_secure_desktop_client:5.3r5:*:*:*:*:macos:*:*
pulsesecure pulse_secure_desktop_client 5.3r5.2 cpe:2.3:a:pulsesecure:pulse_secure_desktop_client:5.3r5.2:*:*:*:*:macos:*:*

References for CVE-2018-15865

cvelogic Threat Intelligence