Ivanti Sentry Authentication Bypass

name: Ivanti Sentry Authentication Bypass
id: b8e0d1cf-e6a8-4d46-a5ae-aebe18ead8f8
version: 8
date: '2026-03-27'
author: Michael Haag, Splunk
status: deprecated
type: TTP
data_source:
    - Suricata
description: The following analytic identifies unauthenticated access attempts to the System Manager Portal in Ivanti Sentry, exploiting CVE-2023-38035. It detects this activity by monitoring HTTP requests to specific endpoints ("/mics/services/configservice/*", "/mics/services/*", "/mics/services/MICSLogService*") with a status code of 200. This behavior is significant for a SOC as it indicates potential unauthorized access, which could lead to OS command execution as root. If confirmed malicious, this activity could result in significant system compromise and data breaches, especially if port 8443 is exposed to the internet.
search: |-
    | tstats count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime FROM datamodel=Web
      WHERE Web.url IN ("/mics/services/configservice/*", "/mics/services/*","/mics/services/MICSLogService*") Web.status=200
      BY Web.http_user_agent, Web.status Web.http_method,
         Web.url, Web.url_length, Web.src,
         Web.dest, sourcetype
    | `drop_dm_object_name("Web")`
    | `security_content_ctime(firstTime)`
    | `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`
    | `ivanti_sentry_authentication_bypass_filter`
how_to_implement: To implement this analytic, a network product similar to Suricata or Palo Alto needs to be mapped to the Web datamodel. Modify accordingly to work with your products.
known_false_positives: It is important to note that false positives may occur if the search criteria are expanded beyond the HTTP status code 200. In other words, if the search includes other HTTP status codes, the likelihood of encountering false positives increases. This is due to the fact that HTTP status codes other than 200 may not necessarily indicate a successful exploitation attempt.
references:
    - https://github.com/horizon3ai/CVE-2023-38035/blob/main/CVE-2023-38035.py
    - https://www.horizon3.ai/ivanti-sentry-authentication-bypass-cve-2023-38035-deep-dive/
    - https://forums.ivanti.com/s/article/KB-API-Authentication-Bypass-on-Sentry-Administrator-Interface-CVE-2023-38035?language=en_US
drilldown_searches:
    - name: View the detection results for - "$dest$"
      search: '%original_detection_search% | search  dest = "$dest$"'
      earliest_offset: $info_min_time$
      latest_offset: $info_max_time$
    - name: View risk events for the last 7 days for - "$dest$"
      search: '| from datamodel Risk.All_Risk | search normalized_risk_object IN ("$dest$") starthoursago=168  | stats count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime values(search_name) as "Search Name" values(risk_message) as "Risk Message" values(analyticstories) as "Analytic Stories" values(annotations._all) as "Annotations" values(annotations.mitre_attack.mitre_tactic) as "ATT&CK Tactics" by normalized_risk_object | `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` | `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`'
      earliest_offset: $info_min_time$
      latest_offset: $info_max_time$
rba:
    message: Possible exploitation of CVE-2023-38035 against $dest$.
    risk_objects:
        - field: dest
          type: system
          score: 50
    threat_objects:
        - field: src
          type: ip_address
tags:
    analytic_story:
        - Ivanti Sentry Authentication Bypass CVE-2023-38035
    cve:
        - CVE-2023-38035
    asset_type: Network
    atomic_guid: []
    mitre_attack_id:
        - T1190
    product:
        - Splunk Enterprise
        - Splunk Enterprise Security
        - Splunk Cloud
    security_domain: network
tests:
    - name: True Positive Test
      attack_data:
        - data: https://media.githubusercontent.com/media/splunk/attack_data/master/datasets/attack_techniques/T1190/ivanti/ivanti_sentry_CVE_2023_38035.log
          source: suricata
          sourcetype: suricata