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Pan OsOperating system · Paloaltonetworks

CVE-2020-2013

HIGH · 8.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2020-05-13
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 8.1.13 / 9.0.6 or later.
See remediation →
95/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable No privileges

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 · unedited
A cleartext transmission of sensitive information vulnerability in Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS Panorama that discloses an authenticated PAN-OS administrator's PAN-OS session cookie. When an administrator issues a context switch request into a managed firewall with an affected PAN-OS Panorama version, their PAN-OS session cookie is transmitted over cleartext to the firewall. An attacker with the ability to intercept this network traffic between the firewall and Panorama can access the administrator's account and further manipulate devices managed by Panorama. This issue affects: PAN-OS 7.1 versions earlier than 7.1.26; PAN-OS 8.1 versions earlier than 8.1.13; PAN-OS 9.0 versions earlier than 9.0.6; PAN-OS 9.1 versions earlier than 9.1.1; All version of PAN-OS 8.0;

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 confidence

PAN-OS Panorama transmits authenticated administrator session cookies in cleartext when an admin performs a context switch to a managed firewall. An attacker with network interception capabilities between Panorama and the firewall can capture these cookies and hijack the admin session, gaining full access to manipulate managed devices.

MitigationUpgrade PAN-OS Panorama to version 7.1.26, 8.1.13, 9.0.6, 9.1.1 or later. Additionally, implement network segmentation and TLS inspection to prevent traffic interception between Panorama and managed firewalls.

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
Affected:>= 7.1.0, <= 7.1.26>= 8.0.0, <= 8.0.20>= 8.1.0, < 8.1.13>= 9.0.0, < 9.0.6>= 9.1.0, < 9.1.1

CVSS 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
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify Panorama appliance version
    Log into the Panorama web UI and navigate to Dashboard > System > General or use the CLI command 'show system info' to view the running PAN-OS version
    Affected if The PAN-OS version falls within 7.1.0-7.1.26, 8.0.0-8.0.20, 8.1.0-8.1.12, 9.0.0-9.0.5, or 9.1.0-9.1.0
  2. Determine if managed firewalls are connected
    In Panorama web UI, go to Panorama > Managed Devices > Summary to list all firewalls and device groups managed by this Panorama instance
    Affected if One or more managed firewalls or device groups are configured, indicating the context switch feature could be used
  3. Verify admin accounts with context switch access
    In Panorama web UI, navigate to Panorama > Administrators and review admin accounts. Check each admin's Device Group and Firewall Access settings to see if they have permission to switch context to managed devices
    Affected if Any administrator account has Device Group or Firewall access rights that permit context switching to managed devices
  4. Inspect network traffic between Panorama and managed firewalls
    Use a network packet capture tool on the link between Panorama and a managed firewall, then trigger a context switch by logging in as an admin with managed device access. Analyze the captured traffic for cookie values transmitted in cleartext (unencrypted HTTP)
    Affected if Session cookies or authentication tokens are visible in plain text within network captures between Panorama and managed firewalls

You are affected if your Panorama runs a PAN-OS version within the affected ranges AND has managed firewalls configured with admins who can perform context switches, with unencrypted traffic flowing between Panorama and those devices.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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 data
Upgrade available Upgrade to 8.1.13 / 9.0.6 / 9.1.1 or later
Fixed in 8.1.139.0.69.1.1
Interim mitigation

Upgrade PAN-OS Panorama to version 7.1.26, 8.1.13, 9.0.6, 9.1.1 or later. Additionally, implement network segmentation and TLS inspection to prevent traffic interception between Panorama and managed firewalls.

Fix this in Pan Os Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation8.0 h
  • Implementation6.0 h
  • Testing8.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
26.0 hours of engineering $4,600
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2020-2013 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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What this is

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What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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