Pan OsOperating system · Paloaltonetworks
CVE-2020-2041
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 · uneditedAn insecure configuration of the appweb daemon of Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS 8.1 allows a remote unauthenticated user to send a specifically crafted request to the device that causes the appweb service to crash. Repeated attempts to send this request result in denial of service to all PAN-OS services by restarting the device and putting it into maintenance mode. This issue impacts all versions of PAN-OS 8.0, and PAN-OS 8.1 versions earlier than 8.1.16.
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 confidenceAn insecure configuration in the appweb web server daemon in PAN-OS 8.0 and before 8.1.16 allows remote unauthenticated attackers to send specially crafted requests that crash the appweb service. Repeated exploitation causes repeated crashes leading to device restart into maintenance mode, resulting in complete denial of service.
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
>= 8.0.0, <= 8.0.20>= 8.1.0, < 8.1.16CVSS 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:3.1/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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Check PAN-OS versionAccess the device via CLI and run 'show system info' or check the web interface login page footer for the version numberAffected if The installed version is 8.0.0 through 8.0.20, or 8.1.0 through 8.1.15 (versions before 8.1.16)
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Verify management interface exposureReview network firewall rules or access lists to determine if the PAN-OS management interface (HTTP/HTTPS on ports 80/443 or dedicated management port) is accessible from untrusted/external networksAffected if The management interface is reachable from untrusted networks without proper filtering
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Confirm appweb service availabilityAttempt to access the device web interface or check service status via 'show system services web-server' in CLIAffected if The appweb service is running and the management interface is externally accessible, indicating potential exploitability
A system is affected if it runs PAN-OS version 8.0.0-8.0.20 or 8.1.0-8.1.15 and has its management interface exposed to untrusted networks, making it vulnerable to remote unauthenticated denial-of-service attacks.
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 data8.1.16
Upgrade PAN-OS to version 8.1.16 or later (or to a supported PAN-OS version) to resolve the insecure appweb configuration. For systems that cannot be immediately patched, consider network-level filtering to limit exposure of the management interface to untrusted networks.
Fix this in Pan Os
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,800.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2020-2041 — 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-2020-2041 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
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