Pan OsOperating system · Paloaltonetworks

CVE-2020-2030

HIGH · 7.2 CVSS v3.1 Published 2020-07-08
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 8.1.15 or later.
See remediation →
78/100
Remediation priority · High
Remotely reachable 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
An OS Command Injection vulnerability in the PAN-OS management interface that allows authenticated administrators to execute arbitrary OS commands with root privileges. This issue impacts PAN-OS 8.1 versions earlier than PAN-OS 8.1.15; and all versions of PAN-OS 7.1 and PAN-OS 8.0. This issue does not impact PAN-OS 9.0, PAN-OS 9.1, or Prisma Access services.

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

OS Command Injection vulnerability in PAN-OS management interface allowing authenticated administrators to execute arbitrary OS commands with root privileges. The vulnerability exists in the management plane and requires administrator-level authentication for exploitation.

MitigationUpgrade to PAN-OS 8.1.15 or later, or migrate to PAN-OS 9.0/9.1. For PAN-OS 7.1 and 8.0 (which have no patch), immediate upgrade 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:>= 7.1.0, <= 7.1.26>= 8.0.0, <= 8.0.20>= 8.1.0, < 8.1.15

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
High
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/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 checks

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

  1. Identify installed PAN-OS version
    Run 'show system info' in the PAN-OS CLI or check the Dashboard in the web interface for the PAN-OS version number
    Affected if The version falls within 7.1.0-7.1.26, 8.0.0-8.0.20, or 8.1.0-8.1.14
  2. Confirm management interface accessibility
    Check if the management interface (HTTPS on port 443) is exposed to untrusted networks by reviewing firewall rules or interface bindings
    Affected if The PAN-OS management interface is reachable from networks outside the trusted administration zone
  3. Review administrator account exposure
    Audit existing administrator accounts and their source IP restrictions using 'show admins' in CLI or Accounts > Administrators in the web interface
    Affected if Multiple administrator accounts exist or admin accounts lack source IP restrictions, increasing the attack surface
  4. Check for suspicious command execution logs
    Review system logs for unexpected commands: grep for 'request system' or 'debug' commands in the Traffic and System logs, particularly those executed by administrators
    Affected if Unknown or unexpected commands appear in logs, or commands were executed outside of normal administrative activities

You are affected if your PAN-OS version is 7.1.0-7.1.26, 8.0.0-8.0.20, or 8.1.0-8.1.14 AND the management interface is accessible to potential attackers.

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 8.1.15 or later
Fixed in 8.1.15
Interim mitigation

Upgrade to PAN-OS 8.1.15 or later, or migrate to PAN-OS 9.0/9.1. For PAN-OS 7.1 and 8.0 (which have no patch), immediate upgrade to a supported version is required.

Fix this in Pan Os Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing12.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
28.0 hours of engineering $4,760
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $7,616.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2020-2030 — 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 sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2020-2030 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

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.

What belongs here
  • 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
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data