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Incorrect Privilege AssignmentWeakness · CWE-266

CVE-2025-2179

MEDIUM · 6.8 CVSS v4.0 Published 2025-07-29
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
73/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
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
An incorrect privilege assignment vulnerability in the Palo Alto Networks GlobalProtect™ App on Linux devices enables a locally authenticated non administrative user to disable the app even if the GlobalProtect app configuration would not normally permit them to do so. The GlobalProtect app on Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, Chrome OS and GlobalProtect UWP app are not affected.

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

An incorrect privilege assignment vulnerability in the Palo Alto Networks GlobalProtect App on Linux allows a locally authenticated non-administrative user to disable the app, bypassing the intended configuration restrictions. This is a privilege escalation issue where the app fails to properly enforce permission controls for its own disablement functionality on Linux platforms.

MitigationApply the vendor patch from Palo Alto Networks when available. In the interim, restrict local shell access to trusted administrators only and monitor for unauthorized GlobalProtect app disablement events.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

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
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
Authentication
None
User interaction
None
Scope
X

CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:N/R:U/V:D/RE:M/U:Amber

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. Verify GlobalProtect App is installed
    Check for GlobalProtect installation on Linux: look for /opt/palo-alto/networks/globalprotect or run 'ls -la /opt/' and search for Palo Alto directories. Also check if the 'globalprotect' command is available via 'which globalprotect' or 'command -v globalprotect'.
    Affected if GlobalProtect App is installed on the Linux system
  2. Check installed GlobalProtect version
    Run 'globalprotect --version' or 'globalprotect -v' if available, or inspect the app's binary/version file in its installation directory. Compare the version against any vendor advisories for CVE-2025-2179.
    Affected if The installed version is within the affected range (if known) or unpatched
  3. Inspect file permissions on GlobalProtect directories
    Check ownership and permissions on the GlobalProtect installation directory (e.g., /opt/palo-alto/networks/globalprotect). Run 'ls -la /opt/palo-alto/' and examine if non-administrative users have write access to critical binaries, configs, or scripts.
    Affected if Non-admin users have write or execute permissions on files related to app disablement functionality
  4. Test if non-admin users can access disable functionality
    As a non-administrative user (not root, not in sudoers), attempt to run the GlobalProtect disable command if known (e.g., 'globalprotect disable' or via systemctl). Verify if the operation succeeds without proper admin privileges.
    Affected if A non-privileged local user can successfully disable the GlobalProtect app
  5. Check user group membership and sudo access
    Run 'id' and 'groups' to identify the current user's privileges. Check if the user is in admin/sudo groups. Review /etc/sudoers and group memberships like 'sudo', 'wheel', or 'admin'.
    Affected if The test user has administrative privileges (root, sudo, wheel group) or the vulnerability specifically affects non-admin users who can bypass restrictions

A user is affected if they have a non-patched GlobalProtect App version on Linux and a locally authenticated non-administrative user can successfully disable the application, indicating broken privilege controls.

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
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Apply the vendor patch from Palo Alto Networks when available. In the interim, restrict local shell access to trusted administrators only and monitor for unauthorized GlobalProtect app disablement events.

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation3.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
11.0 hours of engineering $1,920
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Scan for this in your stack

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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-2025-2179 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
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