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CVE-2020-2018


An authentication bypass vulnerability in the Panorama context switching feature allows an attacker with network access to a Panorama's management interface to gain privileged access to managed firewalls. An attacker requires some knowledge of managed firewalls to exploit this issue. This issue does not affect Panorama configured with custom certificates authentication for communication between Panorama and managed devices. This issue affects: PAN-OS 7.1 versions earlier than 7.1.26; PAN-OS 8.1 versions earlier than 8.1.12; PAN-OS 9.0 versions earlier than 9.0.6; All versions of PAN-OS 8.0.


Security Impact Summary

This vulnerability carries a CRITICAL severity rating with a CVSS v3.1 score of 9.0, indicating it can be exploited remotely over the network but requires specific conditions to be met without requiring user interaction and does not require pre-existing privileges . The vulnerability impacts confidentiality (data exposure), integrity (unauthorized modifications), and availability (service disruption) for affected systems. Impacting 1 product from paloaltonetworks organizations running these solutions should prioritize assessment and patching.

Historical Context

Reported in 2020, this vulnerability emerged during an era marked by increased sophistication in supply chain attacks, cloud infrastructure vulnerabilities, and software-as-a-service (SaaS) security challenges. Security practices during this period emphasized zero-trust architectures, container security, and API protection.


Published

2020-05-13T19:15:14.470

Last Modified

2024-11-21T05:24:27.897

Status

Modified

Source

[email protected]

Severity

CVSSv3.1: 9.0 (CRITICAL)

CVSSv2 Vector

AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

  • Access Vector: NETWORK
  • Access Complexity: MEDIUM
  • Authentication: NONE
  • Confidentiality Impact: COMPLETE
  • Integrity Impact: COMPLETE
  • Availability Impact: COMPLETE
Exploitability Score

8.6

Impact Score

10.0

Weaknesses
  • Type: Secondary
    CWE-287
  • Type: Primary
    CWE-287

Affected Vendors & Products
Type Vendor Product Version/Range Vulnerable?
Operating System paloaltonetworks pan-os < 7.1.26 Yes
Operating System paloaltonetworks pan-os ≤ 8.0.20 Yes
Operating System paloaltonetworks pan-os < 8.1.12 Yes
Operating System paloaltonetworks pan-os < 9.0.6 Yes

References

How SecUtils Interprets This CVE

SecUtils normalizes and enriches National Vulnerability Database (NVD) records by standardizing vendor and product identifiers, aggregating vulnerability metadata from both NVD and MITRE sources, and providing structured context for security teams. For paloaltonetworks's affected products, we extract Common Platform Enumeration (CPE) data, Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) classifications, CVSS severity metrics, and reference data to enable rapid vulnerability prioritization and asset correlation. This record contains no exploit code, proof-of-concept instructions, or attack methodologies—only defensive intelligence necessary for patch management, risk assessment, and security operations.