Detect Ivanti Sentry OS Command Injection Exploitation (CVE-2026-10520) in Elastic Security
Detects exploitation attempts targeting CVE-2026-10520, an OS command injection vulnerability (CWE-78) in Ivanti Sentry. This vulnerability is actively exploited in the wild (CISA KEV) and allows unauthenticated or authenticated attackers to inject operating system commands through Ivanti Sentry's administrative or API interfaces, potentially leading to full system compromise. Ivanti Sentry acts as a gateway for enterprise mobile device management, making it a high-value target for threat actors seeking persistent access to corporate infrastructure.
MITRE ATT&CK
Elastic Detection Query
sequence by host.name with maxspan=30s
[network where destination.port in (8443, 443, 9090) and
network.direction == "inbound" and
not source.ip == "127.0.0.1"]
[process where event.type == "start" and
process.parent.name in ("java", "sh", "bash", "catalina.sh") and
process.name in ("sh", "bash", "dash", "python", "python3", "perl", "wget", "curl", "nc", "ncat", "netcat", "chmod", "mkfifo", "id", "whoami", "uname") and
(
process.args : ("*;*", "*&&*", "*||*", "*`*", "*$(*", "*>/tmp*", "*wget*", "*curl*") or
process.name in ("nc", "ncat", "netcat", "mkfifo")
)
]Uses EQL sequence correlation to link inbound network connections on Ivanti Sentry ports with subsequent suspicious process spawning from Java parent processes within a 30-second window, providing high-fidelity detection of active exploitation.
Data Sources
Required Tables
False Positives & Tuning
- Automated monitoring scripts polling Sentry health endpoints followed by coincidental admin shell activity
- Load balancer health checks triggering network events simultaneous with scheduled maintenance scripts
- Security scanner authenticated probes coinciding with background Java garbage collection shell calls
- Ivanti update service downloading patches via wget/curl immediately after receiving management traffic
Other platforms for CVE-2026-10520
Testing Methodology
Validate this detection against 4 adversary techniques from Atomic Red Team. Each test below lists the behaviour to exercise and the telemetry you should expect to see. Executable commands and cleanup steps are available with Pro.
- Test 1Ivanti Sentry CVE-2026-10520 Basic Command Injection Simulation
Expected signal: EDR should record process creation event: parent=java, child=bash with arguments '-c' and 'id; whoami; uname -a; cat /etc/passwd | head -3'. Auditd should record EXECVE syscall with ppid matching java process PID. Network telemetry: no outbound connections expected in this basic test.
- Test 2Ivanti Sentry Reverse Shell Simulation via Java Parent
Expected signal: Process chain: java -> bash (args: -c, 'echo ... | nc 127.0.0.1 9999') -> nc (args: 127.0.0.1, 9999). Network connection event: nc connecting to 127.0.0.1:9999. Auditd EXECVE syscalls for bash and nc with ppid chain traceable to java.
- Test 3Ivanti Sentry Web Shell Drop Simulation
Expected signal: File creation event: /tmp/sim_sentry_webapps/cmd_sim_marker.jsp created by initiating process java (sentry_webshell_sim). Process creation event: java spawning bash to list directory contents. EDR file monitoring should record .jsp creation in simulated webapps directory with java as initiating process.
- Test 4Ivanti Sentry Credential Staging Simulation
Expected signal: Process chain: java -> bash (multiple invocations with file read and base64 encoding commands). File access events: reads of simulated credential files. File creation event: /tmp/exfil_stage.b64 created by bash initiating from java parent. Auditd EXECVE records for bash invocations with ppid traceable to java.
References (4)
- https://hub.ivanti.com/s/article/Security-Advisory-Ivanti-Sentry-CVE-2026-10520-CVE-2026-10523?language=en_US
- https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/directives/bod-26-04-prioritizing-security-updates-based-risk
- https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/directives/bod-26-04-implementation-guidance-prioritizing-security-updates-based-risk
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-10520
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