PAN-OS: Predictable temporary filename vulnerability allows local privilege escalation

Published 6 y ago 2020-03-11 · modified 4 mo ago 2026-06-17 · JSON

CVSS

7.0

v3.1 · CNA

CISA KEV

not known exploited

EPSS

0.4%

percentile 30%

Public exploits

none known

A predictable temporary filename vulnerability in PAN-OS allows local privilege escalation. This issue allows a local attacker who bypassed the restricted shell to execute commands as a low privileged user and gain root access on the PAN-OS hardware or virtual appliance. This issue affects only PAN-OS 8.1 versions earlier than PAN-OS 8.1.13. This issue does not affect PAN-OS 7.1, PAN-OS 9.0, or later PAN-OS versions.

Exploit prediction (EPSS)

0.36% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 30% of all scored CVEs.

CVSS scores

Assigned by	Version	Score	Vector
CNA	3.1	7.0	`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`
CNA	3.1	7.0	`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`
NVD	3.1	7.8	`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`
NVD	2.0	7.2	`AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C`

Affected products

Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS

Classification

Weakness

CWE-377 DEPRECATED: Insecure Temporary File
CWE-668 Exposure of Resource to Wrong Sphere

Technology feeds

Palo Alto PAN-OS (RSS, critical only)

References

security.paloaltonetworks.com /CVE-2020-1981 · x_refsource_CONFIRM, x_transferred

Sources

CVE List: CVE-2020-1981
NVD: CVE-2020-1981

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