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Pan OsOperating system · Paloaltonetworks

CVE-2021-3062

HIGH · 8.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2021-11-10
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 8.1.20 / 9.0.14 or later.
See remediation →
94/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
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 improper access control vulnerability in PAN-OS software enables an attacker with authenticated access to GlobalProtect portals and gateways to connect to the EC2 instance metadata endpoint for VM-Series firewalls hosted on Amazon AWS. Exploitation of this vulnerability enables an attacker to perform any operations allowed by the EC2 role in AWS. This issue impacts: PAN-OS 8.1 versions earlier than PAN-OS 8.1.20 VM-Series firewalls; PAN-OS 9.1 versions earlier than PAN-OS 9.1.11 VM-Series firewalls; PAN-OS 9.0 versions earlier than PAN-OS 9.0.14 VM-Series firewalls; PAN-OS 10.0 versions earlier than PAN-OS 10.0.8 VM-Series firewalls. Prisma Access customers are not impacted by this issue.

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

Improper access control in PAN-OS GlobalProtect allows authenticated attackers on VM-Series firewalls hosted in AWS to access the EC2 instance metadata service (IMDS), potentially exposing AWS credentials and allowing operations permitted by the attached IAM role.

MitigationUpgrade PAN-OS to fixed versions (8.1.20, 9.1.11, 9.0.14, 10.0.8 or later). As defense-in-depth, disable IMDS or enforce IMDSv2 on EC2 instances and restrict IAM role permissions.

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:>= 8.1.0, < 8.1.20>= 9.0.0, < 9.0.14>= 9.1.0, < 9.1.11>= 10.0.0, < 10.0.8

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

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/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 checks

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

  1. Identify VM-Series deployment in AWS
    Confirm the Palo Alto Networks firewall is a VM-Series model running on Amazon Web Services (AWS). Check the instance type in AWS console or run: aws ec2 describe-instances --filters "Name=instance-state-name,Values=running" --query 'Reservations[*].Instances[*].InstanceId,InstanceType,Tags'
    Affected if The device is NOT a VM-Series instance running in AWS (this vulnerability only affects VM-Series in AWS)
  2. Determine PAN-OS version
    Log into the firewall CLI or GUI and check the PAN-OS version. In CLI: show system info | match sw-version. Or via GUI: Device > Support > System Info
    Affected if The PAN-OS version falls within these affected ranges: 8.1.0-8.1.19, 9.0.0-9.0.13, 9.1.0-9.1.10, or 10.0.0-10.0.7
  3. Verify GlobalProtect is enabled
    Check if GlobalProtect portal or gateway is configured. In CLI: show global-protect global-protect-portal. Or via GUI: Network > GlobalProtect > Portals
    Affected if GlobalProtect is enabled (the vulnerability exploits GlobalProtect to access IMDS)
  4. Confirm IMDS accessibility
    From the VM-Series firewall, test IMDS accessibility. Run from CLI: curl -s http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data/
    Affected if IMDS is accessible and returns metadata (this confirms the attack surface exists)

A user is affected if they run a VM-Series firewall in AWS with a vulnerable PAN-OS version (8.1.x < 20, 9.0.x < 14, 9.1.x < 11, 10.0.x < 8), have GlobalProtect enabled, and IMDS is accessible from the firewall.

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 8.1.20 / 9.0.14 / 9.1.11 or later
Fixed in 8.1.209.0.149.1.11
Interim mitigation

Upgrade PAN-OS to fixed versions (8.1.20, 9.1.11, 9.0.14, 10.0.8 or later). As defense-in-depth, disable IMDS or enforce IMDSv2 on EC2 instances and restrict IAM role permissions.

Recommended fix High confidence

PAN-OS 8.1.20 / 9.0.14 / 9.1.11 / 10.0.8 (or later)

  1. Identify the current PAN-OS version via the web interface or CLI (show system info).
  2. Determine the appropriate fixed release for the current branch: PAN-OS 8.1.20 for 8.1.x, PAN-OS 9.0.14 for 9.0.x, PAN-OS 9.1.11 for 9.1.x, or PAN-OS 10.0.8 for 10.0.x.
  3. Schedule a maintenance window and back up the device configuration.
  4. Download the relevant upgrade image from the Palo Alto Networks support portal.
  5. Apply the upgrade following the official PAN-OS upgrade guide (upload the image, reboot the firewall).
  6. After upgrade, verify that the EC2 instance metadata endpoint (169.254.169.254) is no longer reachable from GlobalProtect sessions (e.g., curl 169.254.169.254 from a GlobalProtect-connected host).
  7. Confirm that all expected firewall services and policies continue to operate correctly.
Caveat Review the release notes for the target version; minor behavioral changes may occur but no major breaking changes are expected for this security patch.

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

Fix this in Pan Os Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation6.0 h
  • Implementation12.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
28.0 hours of engineering $4,980
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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-2021-3062 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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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
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  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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