Pan OsOperating system · Paloaltonetworks
CVE-2017-7218
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 Management Web Interface in Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS before 7.1.9 allows remote authenticated users to gain privileges via unspecified request parameters.
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 · moderate confidencePalo Alto Networks PAN-OS before 7.1.9 contains a privilege escalation vulnerability in the Management Web Interface that allows remote authenticated users to gain elevated privileges through unspecified request parameters. The vulnerability requires authentication but enables a low-privilege administrative user to escalate to higher privileges.
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
<= 7.1.8CVSS 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
- Local
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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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Check PAN-OS versionAccess the Management Web Interface and navigate to Device > Setup > Operations, or use the CLI command 'show system info' to display the PAN-OS version numberAffected if The displayed version is 7.1.8 or lower (any version before 7.1.9)
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Confirm Management Web Interface is enabledCheck Device > Setup > Management > Management Interface settings in the web UI, or use the CLI command 'show system setting ssl-service' to verify the web management interface is operationalAffected if The Management Web Interface is enabled and accessible (this is required for the vulnerability to be exploitable)
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Identify admin user account privilegesNavigate to Device > Administrators or use the CLI command 'show admins' to list administrative accounts and their role assignmentsAffected if There are multiple admin accounts with different privilege levels (a low-privilege administrative account exists alongside higher-privilege accounts)
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Verify management interface network exposureCheck the management interface IP access settings under Device > Setup > Management > Network and review any permitted source IP ranges for web management accessAffected if The management web interface is accessible from untrusted networks or broadly exposed IP ranges (increases exploitability)
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Review audit logs for privilege escalation indicatorsUse the Monitor > Logs > Configuration logs to search for administrative actions involving privilege changes or role modificationsAffected if There are unexplained privilege modifications or role changes performed by accounts that should not have elevated permissions
You are affected if your PAN-OS version is 7.1.8 or lower AND the Management Web Interface is enabled with administrative accounts of varying privilege levels.
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 dataUpgrade PAN-OS to version 7.1.9 or later. If immediate patching is not feasible, restrict management interface access to trusted admin networks and implement additional access controls on the web management interface.
Fix this in Pan Os
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing3.0 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 $3,408.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2017-7218 — 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-2017-7218 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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A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.
- 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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