Pan OsOperating system · Paloaltonetworks
CVE-2016-3656
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedThe GlobalProtect Portal in Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS before 5.0.18, 6.0.x before 6.0.13, 6.1.x before 6.1.10, and 7.0.x before 7.0.5H2 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (service crash) via a crafted request.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · high confidenceThe GlobalProtect Portal in Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS contains a vulnerability where crafted requests can cause a denial of service by crashing the service. This affects multiple version branches (5.x, 6.0.x, 6.1.x, and 7.0.x) and is exploitable remotely without authentication.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data
Pan OsOperating system
>= 5.0.0, < 5.0.18>= 5.1, < 5.1.11>= 6.0.0, < 6.0.13>= 6.1.0, < 6.1.10>= 7.0.0, <= 7.0.5CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Determine PAN-OS versionLog into the PAN-OS CLI and run 'show system info' or access the web GUI and check Dashboard > General Information > PAN-OS VersionAffected if The installed version falls within any of these ranges: >= 5.0.0 and < 5.0.18, >= 5.1.0 and < 5.1.11, >= 6.0.0 and < 6.0.13, >= 6.1.0 and < 6.1.10, or >= 7.0.0 and <= 7.0.5
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Confirm GlobalProtect Portal is enabledAccess PAN-OS web GUI, navigate to GlobalProtect > Portals and verify a portal configuration exists and is enabled, or run 'show global-protect portal' in CLIAffected if A GlobalProtect portal is configured and active on the device
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Verify GlobalProtect service is listeningFrom an external host, attempt to reach the GlobalProtect Portal port (default 443) on the firewall IP address using a web browser or 'nc -zv <firewall-ip> 443'Affected if The GlobalProtect Portal is reachable over the network, making it remotely exploitable
The environment is affected if the PAN-OS version is within the vulnerable ranges listed AND GlobalProtect Portal is enabled and accessible.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor data5.0.185.1.116.0.13
Upgrade PAN-OS to version 5.0.18, 6.0.13, 6.1.10, or 7.0.5H2 or later per Palo Alto Networks advisory. For production environments, schedule maintenance window and test upgrade in staging first.
Fix this in Pan Os
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation3.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $3,680.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2016-3656 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2016-3656 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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