CVE-2018-16261

In Pulse Secure Pulse Desktop Client 5.3RX before 5.3R5 and 9.0R1, there is a Privilege Escalation Vulnerability with Dynamic Certificate Trust.

Published: 2018-09-06 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2018-16261 is rated Low Risk (30.9/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.20%). 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-2018-16261

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 0.03% 0.20% +0.17%
2 2025-03-17 0.06% 0.03% -0.03%
3 2023-03-07 — 0.06% —

Full EPSS history (5 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2018-16261

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
6.8 3.0 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.0/AV:P/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:P)
Hands-on access—USB, keyboard, opening the case—not something you do purely over the wire.
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:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
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.
 0.9 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-2018-16261

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2018-16261

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
pulsesecure pulse_secure_desktop_client 5.3r1 cpe:2.3:a:pulsesecure:pulse_secure_desktop_client:5.3r1:*:*:*:*:windows:*:*
pulsesecure pulse_secure_desktop_client 5.3r1.1 cpe:2.3:a:pulsesecure:pulse_secure_desktop_client:5.3r1.1:*:*:*:*:windows:*:*
pulsesecure pulse_secure_desktop_client 5.3r2 cpe:2.3:a:pulsesecure:pulse_secure_desktop_client:5.3r2:*:*:*:*:windows:*:*
pulsesecure pulse_secure_desktop_client 5.3r3 cpe:2.3:a:pulsesecure:pulse_secure_desktop_client:5.3r3:*:*:*:*:windows:*:*
pulsesecure pulse_secure_desktop_client 5.3r4 cpe:2.3:a:pulsesecure:pulse_secure_desktop_client:5.3r4:*:*:*:*:windows:*:*
pulsesecure pulse_secure_desktop_client 5.3r4.1 cpe:2.3:a:pulsesecure:pulse_secure_desktop_client:5.3r4.1:*:*:*:*:windows:*:*
pulsesecure pulse_secure_desktop_client 5.3r4.2 cpe:2.3:a:pulsesecure:pulse_secure_desktop_client:5.3r4.2:*:*:*:*:windows:*:*
pulsesecure pulse_secure_desktop_client 5.3rx cpe:2.3:a:pulsesecure:pulse_secure_desktop_client:5.3rx:*:*:*:*:windows:*:*
pulsesecure pulse_secure_desktop_client 9.0r1 cpe:2.3:a:pulsesecure:pulse_secure_desktop_client:9.0r1:*:*:*:*:windows:*:*

References for CVE-2018-16261

cvelogic Threat Intelligence