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Actively exploited in the wild. This CVE is on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities list — treat remediation as urgent. Federal remediation due by 15 Apr 2022. Known ransomware use
Pan OsOperating system · Paloaltonetworks

CVE-2020-2021

CRITICAL · 10.0 CVSS v3.1 Published 2020-06-29
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 8.1.15 / 9.0.9 or later.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
In the wild Ransomware Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

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
When Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) authentication is enabled and the 'Validate Identity Provider Certificate' option is disabled (unchecked), improper verification of signatures in PAN-OS SAML authentication enables an unauthenticated network-based attacker to access protected resources. The attacker must have network access to the vulnerable server to exploit this vulnerability. This issue affects PAN-OS 9.1 versions earlier than PAN-OS 9.1.3; PAN-OS 9.0 versions earlier than PAN-OS 9.0.9; PAN-OS 8.1 versions earlier than PAN-OS 8.1.15, and all versions of PAN-OS 8.0 (EOL). This issue does not affect PAN-OS 7.1. This issue cannot be exploited if SAML is not used for authentication. This issue cannot be exploited if the 'Validate Identity Provider Certificate' option is enabled (checked) in the SAML Identity Provider Server Profile. Resources that can be protected by SAML-based single sign-on (SSO) authentication are: GlobalProtect Gateway, GlobalProtect Portal, GlobalProtect Clientless VPN, Authentication and Captive Portal, PAN-OS next-generation firewalls (PA-Series, VM-Series) and Panorama web interfaces, Prisma Access In the case of GlobalProtect Gateways, GlobalProtect Portal, Clientless VPN, Captive Portal, and Prisma Access, an unauthenticated attacker with network access to the affected servers can gain access to protected resources if allowed by configured authentication and Security policies. There is no impact on the integrity and availability of the gateway, portal or VPN server. An attacker cannot inspect or tamper with sessions of regular users. In the worst case, this is a critical severity vulnerability with a CVSS Base Score of 10.0 (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N). In the case of PAN-OS and Panorama web interfaces, this issue allows an unauthenticated attacker with network access to the PAN-OS or Panorama web interfaces to log in as an administrator and perform administrative actions. In the worst-case scenario, this is a critical severity vulnerability with a CVSS Base Score of 10.0 (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H). If the web interfaces are only accessible to a restricted management network, then the issue is lowered to a CVSS Base Score of 9.6 (CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H). Palo Alto Networks is not aware of any malicious attempts to exploit this vulnerability.

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

SAML authentication bypass vulnerability in PAN-OS where disabling the 'Validate Identity Provider Certificate' option causes improper signature verification, allowing unauthenticated network attackers to access protected resources including GlobalProtect gateways, portals, and administrative web interfaces.

MitigationEnable the 'Validate Identity Provider Certificate' option in SAML IdP server profiles, or upgrade to PAN-OS 9.1.3+, 9.0.9+, or 8.1.15+ per version. For EOL 8.0 systems, migration to a supported version is required.

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:>= 8.0.0, <= 8.0.20>= 8.1.0, < 8.1.15>= 9.0.0, < 9.0.9>= 9.1.0, < 9.1.3

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
None
Scope
Changed
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/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 PAN-OS version
    Run `show system info` on the PAN-OS device or Panorama and note the software version shown (for example, 8.1.10 or 9.0.5)
    Affected if The installed version falls within 8.0.0-8.0.20, 8.1.0-8.1.14, 9.0.0-9.0.8, or 9.1.0-9.1.2
  2. Determine if SAML authentication is configured
    Check for SAML IdP server profiles: in the web UI navigate to Device > Server Profiles > SAML Identity Provider, or run `show user-id xml-api statistics` to see if SAML auth is in use, or look for SAML IdP-related configuration entries
    Affected if SAML Identity Provider profiles are configured and in use for authentication
  3. Inspect Validate Identity Provider Certificate setting
    Open each SAML IdP server profile and verify whether the 'Validate Identity Provider Certificate' option is enabled or disabled; in the CLI this may appear in the IdP profile configuration as a certificate validation flag
    Affected if The 'Validate Identity Provider Certificate' setting is disabled (unchecked) in the SAML IdP server profile

A user is affected if they run a vulnerable PAN-OS version listed above, have SAML authentication configured, AND have the Validate Identity Provider Certificate option disabled in their SAML IdP server profile.

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.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 8.1.15 / 9.0.9 / 9.1.3 or later
Fixed in 8.1.159.0.99.1.3
Interim mitigation

Enable the 'Validate Identity Provider Certificate' option in SAML IdP server profiles, or upgrade to PAN-OS 9.1.3+, 9.0.9+, or 8.1.15+ per version. For EOL 8.0 systems, migration to a supported version is required.

Recommended fix High confidence

PAN-OS 8.1.15+ (or 9.0.9+ or 9.1.3+) depending on your target branch

  1. If using PAN-OS 8.0.x, this version is End-of-Life with no patch available - you must upgrade to a supported version branch (8.1.15+, 9.0.9+, or 9.1.3+)
  2. If using PAN-OS 8.1.x, upgrade to PAN-OS 8.1.15 or later
  3. If using PAN-OS 9.0.x, upgrade to PAN-OS 9.0.9 or later
  4. If using PAN-OS 9.1.x, upgrade to PAN-OS 9.1.3 or later
  5. After upgrading, verify that SAML authentication continues to function correctly
  6. Alternative mitigation only (if upgrade is not immediately feasible): Enable 'Validate Identity Provider Certificate' in the SAML Identity Provider Server Profile
Caveat PAN-OS 8.0 is End-of-Life with no patch; must upgrade to 8.1+ which may have behavioral changes

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Pan Os Exploited in the wild — priority engagement
  • Consultation3.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
13.0 hours of engineering $2,280
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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

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Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2020-2021 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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