CVE-2024-9474 PAN-OS: Privilege Escalation (PE) Vulnerability in the Web Management Interface

Description

A privilege escalation vulnerability in Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS software allows a PAN-OS administrator with access to the management web interface to perform actions on the firewall with root privileges.

This issue is applicable to PAN-OS 10.1, PAN-OS 10.2, PAN-OS 11.0, PAN-OS 11.1, and PAN-OS 11.2 software on PA-Series, VM-Series, and CN-Series firewalls and on Panorama (virtual and M-Series) and WildFire appliances.

Cloud NGFW and Prisma Access are not impacted by this vulnerability.

Product Status

See the Solution section for additional fixes to commonly deployed maintenance releases.

Required Configuration for Exposure

The risk is greatest if you configure the management interface to enable access from the internet or any untrusted network either:

1. Directly
   or
2. Through a dataplane interface that includes a management interface profile.

The risk is greatly reduced if you make sure that only trusted internal IP addresses are allowed to access the management interface.

Use the following steps to identify your recently detected devices in our Internet scans:

1. To find your known assets that require remediation action, visit the Assets section of Customer Support Portal at https://support.paloaltonetworks.com (Products → Assets → All Assets → Remediation Required).
2. The list of your known devices with an internet-facing management interface discovered in our scans are tagged with PAN-SA-2024-0015 with a last seen timestamp in UTC. If no such devices are listed, it indicates our scan did not find any devices with internet-facing management interface for your account in the last three days.

GlobalProtect Portals and Gateways are not vulnerable to this issue. However, if a management profile is configured on interfaces with GlobalProtect portals or gateways, then it exposes the device to attacks via the management web interface (typically accessible on port 4443) in such cases.

Severity: MEDIUM, Suggested Urgency: HIGHEST

The risk is highest when you allow access to the management interface from external IP addresses on the internet. The worst impact is that a malicious administrator is able to tamper with the system integrity.
CVSS-BT: 6.9 / CVSS-B: 6.9 (CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:H/UI:N/VC:N/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:A/AU:N/R:U/V:C/RE:H/U:Red)

If you configure a specific list of IP addresses that only allow access to the management interface, you greatly reduce the risk of exploitation because attacks would require privileged access using only those IP addresses.
CVSS-BT: 5.9 / CVSS-B: 5.9 (CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:H/UI:N/VC:N/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:A/AU:N/R:U/V:C/RE:H/U:Red)

Exploitation Status

Palo Alto Networks is aware of an increasing number of attacks that leverage the exploitation of this vulnerability. Proof of concepts for this vulnerability have been publicly disclosed by third parties.

Weakness Type and Impact

CWE-78 Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an OS Command ('OS Command Injection')

CAPEC-88 OS Command Injection

Solution

This issue is fixed in PAN-OS 10.1.14-h6, PAN-OS 10.2.12-h2, PAN-OS 11.0.6-h1, PAN-OS 11.1.5-h1, PAN-OS 11.2.4-h1, and all later PAN-OS versions.

In addition, in an attempt to provide the most seamless upgrade path for our customers, we are making fixes available for other TAC-preferred and commonly deployed maintenance releases.

Workarounds and Mitigations

Recommended mitigation—The vast majority of firewalls already follow Palo Alto Networks and industry best practices. However, if you haven’t already, we strongly recommend that you secure access to your management interface according to our best practice deployment guidelines. Specifically, you should restrict access to the management interface to only trusted internal IP addresses to prevent external access from the internet.

Review information about how to secure management access to your Palo Alto Networks firewalls:

• Palo Alto Networks LIVEcommunity article: https://live.paloaltonetworks.com/t5/community-blogs/tips-amp-tricks-how-to-secure-the-management-access-of-your-palo/ba-p/464431
• Palo Alto Networks official and more detailed technical documentation: https://docs.paloaltonetworks.com/best-practices/10-1/administrative-access-best-practices/administrative-access-best-practices/deploy-administrative-access-best-practices

Acknowledgments

Timeline