CVE-2020-2010 in PAN-OS
Summary
by MITRE
An OS command injection vulnerability in PAN-OS management interface allows an authenticated administrator to execute arbitrary OS commands with root privileges. This issue affects: All versions of PAN-OS 7.1 and 8.0; PAN-OS 8.1 versions earlier than 8.1.14; PAN-OS 9.0 versions earlier than 9.0.7.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 10/17/2020
This vulnerability represents a critical operating system command injection flaw within the Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS management interface that fundamentally undermines the security posture of affected firewalls and next-generation firewalls. The vulnerability stems from insufficient input validation and sanitization within the web management interface components that handle administrative commands, creating a pathway for authenticated users to inject malicious operating system commands directly into the underlying linux environment. The flaw specifically manifests when administrative users interact with certain management functions that fail to properly escape or validate user-supplied input before executing system-level operations, thereby enabling privilege escalation from administrative to root privileges. This issue affects multiple major PAN-OS version lines including 7.1, 8.0, and 8.1 through 9.0, with specific patch thresholds indicating that versions prior to 8.1.14 and 9.0.7 remain vulnerable to exploitation.
The technical exploitation of this vulnerability requires an authenticated administrator account with sufficient privileges to access the management interface, making it particularly dangerous as it leverages legitimate administrative functionality to achieve unauthorized system compromise. Attackers can craft malicious inputs that bypass normal validation checks and execute arbitrary commands with the highest system privileges, effectively allowing complete system control including but not limited to data exfiltration, system modification, service disruption, and persistence mechanisms. The root privilege execution capability means that successful exploitation can result in full system compromise, potentially affecting network security policies, logging capabilities, and overall infrastructure integrity. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-77 and CWE-88 categories related to command injection and improper neutralization of special elements used in OS commands, while also mapping to ATT&CK techniques such as T1059.001 for command and scripting interpreter and T1068 for local privilege escalation.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple system compromise to encompass significant business continuity and security implications for organizations relying on Palo Alto Networks firewalls. Network administrators who believe they are operating within secure administrative boundaries may unknowingly execute malicious commands that could lead to complete network infrastructure takeover. The vulnerability affects organizations with multiple PAN-OS versions across their network infrastructure, creating widespread potential impact that requires immediate attention and remediation across all affected systems. Organizations must consider the potential for data loss, unauthorized network access, and complete system compromise as direct consequences of this vulnerability. The exploitation scenario typically involves an authenticated attacker with administrative access to the management interface, which could occur through credential compromise, insider threat, or social engineering attacks that gain administrative privileges. Security teams must implement immediate patch management procedures across all affected PAN-OS versions while also monitoring for potential exploitation attempts through network traffic analysis and system logs. The vulnerability demonstrates the critical importance of input validation and privilege separation in management interfaces, as well as the necessity of maintaining current security patches across all network infrastructure components to prevent such high-severity exploitation opportunities.