Unit 42Unit 42
Critical Vulnerabilities in Ivanti EPMM Exploited
Two critical zero-day vulnerabilities, CVE-2026-1281 and CVE-2026-1340, affecting Ivanti Endpoint Manager Mobile (EPMM) are being actively exploited in the wild, with unauthenticated attackers able to remotely execute arbitrary code on target servers and gain full control over the MDM infrastructure.
Unit 42 has observed widespread exploitation, including reverse shells, web shells, reconnaissance, and malware downloads that target enterprise mobile fleets and corporate networks across sectors such as state and local government, healthcare, manufacturing, professional and legal services, and high technology. The United States Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has added CVE-2026-1281 to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) Catalog.
Palo Alto Networks’ Cortex Xpanse telemetry identifies over 4,400 Ivanti EPMM instances exposed on the public internet. According to Unit 42, attackers are accelerating operations and deploying dormant backdoors to maintain access after patched. Ivanti’s security advisory, released in January 2026, recommends applying RPM 12.x.0.x or RPM 12.x.1.x, which is version-specific, with no downtime required to patch; the article also notes guidance and indicators of compromise to help responders.
Story timeline CVE-2026-1281
Full timelineShow as table
| Published (UTC) | Outlet | Headline |
|---|---|---|
| Tue 10 Feb · 08:50 UTC | The Hacker News | Dutch Authorities Confirm Ivanti Zero-Day Exploit Exposed Employee Contact Data |
| Wed 11 Feb · 01:15 UTC | SecurityOnline | Sleeping with the Enemy: Dormant Backdoors Found in Ivanti EPMM |
| Wed 11 Feb · 12:40 UTC | SecurityWeek | Ivanti Patches Endpoint Manager Vulnerabilities Disclosed in October 2025 |
| Thu 12 Feb · 08:35 UTC | The Hacker News | 83% of Ivanti EPMM Exploits Linked to Single IP on Bulletproof Hosting Infrastructure |
| Thu 12 Feb · 23:01 UTC | Dark Reading | Ivanti EPMM Zero-Day Bugs Spark Exploit Frenzy — Again |
| Tue 17 Feb · 20:55 UTC | Unit 42 | Critical Vulnerabilities in Ivanti EPMM Exploited (this article) |
| Thu 19 Feb · 12:25 UTC | SecurityWeek | Ivanti Exploitation Surges as Zero-Day Attacks Traced Back to July 2025 |
| Fri 8 May · 05:50 UTC | SecurityWeek | Ivanti patches EPMM zero day CVE-2026-6973 after targeted attacks |