Full Report
Between January 21st and 28th, GreyNoise sensors observed reconnaissance activity against Ivanti Connect Secure jump roughly 100x above historical baselines (nope! not a typo!! 100x!!!). What made this spike interesting wasn’t just the volume—it was the structure. We’re tracking two distinct campaigns running in parallel, each with different infrastructure, pacing, and apparent objectives. During this time, GreyNoise tracked two distinct campaigns targeting Ivanti Connect Secure’s /dana-na/auth/url_default/welcome.cgi endpoint. The campaigns share a target—CVE-2025-0282 (EPSS: 93.05%)—but diverge in infrastructure, tactics, and likely operators. Let’s look at what the infrastructure tells us. Campaign 1: The AS213790 Cluster The higher-volume campaign concentrated in AS213790, operated by Limited Network LTD. This provider has appeared in previous reconnaissance campaigns—familiar territory for threat hunters. The geographic footprint is clustered in Romania and Moldova. Over the observation window, this campaign generated: 34,172 total sessions Peak rate of 1,310 requests/hour Aggressive burst patterns The infrastructure choice suggests operators are comfortable with “noisy” providers that tolerate scanning traffic. The burst pattern indicates automated tooling running hot—someone’s racing to enumerate targets before patches deploy. (Side note: AS213790 showing up again is the network equivalent of that one neighbor’s car alarm. At some point, you stop being surprised.) Campaign 2: The Distributed Approach The second campaign took the opposite approach. Roughly 6,000 unique IPs participated, spread across multiple ASNs and geographies. No single provider dominated the traffic. This distribution pattern is consistent with: Botnet infrastructure – compromised hosts providing scanning capacity Residential proxy networks – purchased access to legitimate-appearing IPs Multi-cloud deployment – spinning up instances across providers to avoid concentration The pacing stayed lower and steadier than Campaign 1. This isn’t operators who want speed—it’s operators who want to avoid detection. Comparing the Campaigns Attribute Campaign 1 Campaign 2 Infrastructure Concentrated (AS213790) Distributed Geography Romania/Moldova Global Volume 34,172 sessions ~6,000 IPs Peak Rate 1,310/hour Lower, sustained Strategy Aggressive enumeration Methodical reconnaissance Detection Risk Higher Lower Are these the same actor with different tooling, or competing groups targeting the same vulnerability? Both scenarios are plausible. The timing overlap—both campaigns active across the same week—could indicate coordination or simply shared awareness of a high-value target. The Target: CVE-2025-0282 The campaigns converge on /dana-na/auth/url_default/welcome.cgi, the pre-exploitation version-check endpoint associated with CVE-2025-0282. With an EPSS score of 93.05%, this vulnerability ranks near the top of exploitability rankings. CVE-2025-0283 (EPSS: 0.18%) affects the same product but hasn’t generated the same level of interest. The EPSS differential makes sense. Attackers prioritize vulnerabilities with proven exploitation paths. A 93% score signals that weaponization is either available or imminent. Defender Takeaways The infrastructure analysis reinforces what the volume already suggested: this is serious reconnaissance activity, not background noise. Patch status matters now. CVE-2025-0282 exploitation is a matter of when, not if. Log review should include the target path. External requests to /dana-na/auth/url_default/welcome.cgi deserve scrutiny. Network exposure deserves reassessment. Every internet-facing Ivanti instance is potentially on a target list. Ongoing Monitoring We’re continuing to track both campaigns. As infrastructure patterns stabilize, we’ll publish IOCs for defenders to operationalize. If you’re seeing hits against this endpoint in your environment, drop us a line. Collective visibility makes everyone’s picture clearer.
Analysis Summary
# Tool/Technique: Reconnaissance Activity Targeting CVE-2025-0282
## Overview
This entry summarizes the reconnaissance activity observed against Ivanti Connect Secure appliances targeting the vulnerability identified as CVE-2025-0282. The activity involved two distinct, parallel campaigns characterized by different operational security (OpSec) choices regarding infrastructure and pacing, signaling potentially different operators or highly divergent initial access strategies for the same high-value flaw.
## Technical Details
- Type: Technique (Reconnaissance/Scanning)
- Platform: Ivanti Connect Secure Appliances running vulnerable firmware (targeting `/dana-na/auth/url_default/welcome.cgi`)
- Capabilities: Automated enumeration and version-checking to identify targets susceptible to CVE-2025-0282 exploitation.
- First Seen: Activity observed between January 21st and 28th.
## MITRE ATT&CK Mapping
- TA0043 - Reconnaissance
- T1595 - Active Scanning
- T1595.002 - Internet Scanning
- T1598 - Phishing for Information
- T1598.003 - Spearphishing Link (Implied future step based on vulnerability targeting)
## Functionality
### Core Capabilities
* **Targeted Endpoint Querying:** Both campaigns specifically queried the `/dana-na/auth/url_default/welcome.cgi` endpoint, which is used for pre-exploitation version checking related to CVE-2025-0282.
* **High-Volume Enumeration (Campaign 1):** Aggressive, burst-pattern scanning (peak rate of 1,310 requests/hour) designed for rapid target identification.
* **Stealthy Enumeration (Campaign 2):** Lower, sustained pacing designed to minimize detection while leveraging distributed infrastructure.
### Advanced Features
* **Infrastructure Diversity:** The use of two entirely separate infrastructure approaches (concentrated "noisy" provider vs. distributed botnet/proxy network) suggests sophisticated planning to diversify initial access methods or represents competitive interest in the zero-day.
* **Vulnerability Prioritization:** Focus solely on CVE-2025-0282 (EPSS 93.05%), indicating attackers are prioritizing flaws with high confirmed exploitability profiles over less lucrative ones like CVE-2025-0283 (EPSS 0.18%).
## Indicators of Compromise
*Note: No specific malware hashes or IPs were provided, only infrastructure patterns.*
- File Hashes: N/A (Observation focused on network reconnaissance)
- File Names: N/A
- Registry Keys: N/A
- Network Indicators:
- Targeted Path: `/dana-na/auth/url_default/welcome.cgi`
- Campaign 1 Infrastructure: Concentrated in AS213790 (Limited Network LTD), Geographically clustered in Romania/Moldova.
- Campaign 2 Infrastructure: Distributed across multiple ASNs, utilizing botnet, residential proxy, or multi-cloud resources globally.
- Behavioral Indicators: Aggressive request bursts vs. low, sustained traffic patterns directed at Ivanti headers.
## Associated Threat Actors
The article suggests two possibilities:
1. A single actor using different toolsets/OpSec strategies for the same objective.
2. Two distinct, competing threat groups targeting the same high-value vulnerability concurrently.
*No specific threat group names were attributed.*
## Detection Methods
- **Log Review:** Scrutinizing logs for external requests directed at `/dana-na/auth/url_default/welcome.cgi` on Ivanti Connect Secure instances.
- **Volume Analysis:** Monitoring for sudden, massive spikes (100x baseline) in traffic targeting this specific path.
- **Infrastructure Correlation:** Identifying connections originating heavily from AS213790 (Romania/Moldova) or those exhibiting characteristics of botnets/residential proxies attempting to probe specific endpoints.
## Mitigation Strategies
1. **Immediate Patching:** Patching affected Ivanti Connect Secure instances against CVE-2025-0282 is the top priority, as exploitation is considered likely ("when, not if").
2. **Network Exposure Assessment:** Reassess the necessity of direct internet exposure for all internet-facing Ivanti instances.
3. **Traffic Filtering:** Implement ingress filtering or rate-limiting specifically against the reconnaissance path `/dana-na/auth/url_default/welcome.cgi`.
## Related Tools/Techniques
* **Automated Scanning Tools:** Campaign 1's characteristics (aggressive burst patterns, noisy providers) suggest the use of fast, high-throughput scanning tools.
* **Botnet Infrastructure:** Campaign 2 leverages infrastructure patterns consistent with Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) tooling repurposed for active enumeration.