PAN-OS: Improper SAML SSO authorization of shared local users

Published 6 y ago 2020-05-13 · modified 4 mo ago 2026-06-17 · JSON

CVSS

5.4

v3.1 · CNA

CISA KEV

not known exploited

EPSS

0.9%

percentile 60%

Public exploits

none known

An improper authorization vulnerability in PAN-OS that mistakenly uses the permissions of local linux users instead of the intended SAML permissions of the account when the username is shared for the purposes of SSO authentication. This can result in authentication bypass and unintended resource access for the user. This issue affects: PAN-OS 7.1 versions earlier than 7.1.26; PAN-OS 8.1 versions earlier than 8.1.13; PAN-OS 9.0 versions earlier than 9.0.6; PAN-OS 9.1 versions earlier than 9.1.1; All versions of PAN-OS 8.0.

Exploit prediction (EPSS)

0.89% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 60% of all scored CVEs.

CVSS scores

Assigned by	Version	Score	Vector
CNA	3.1	5.4	`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N`
CNA	3.1	5.4	`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N`
NVD	3.1	8.8	`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`
NVD	2.0	6.5	`AV:N/AC:L/Au:S/C:P/I:P/A:P`

Affected products

Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS

Classification

Weakness

CWE-285 Improper Authorization
CWE-863 Incorrect Authorization

Technology feeds

Palo Alto PAN-OS (RSS, critical only)

References

security.paloaltonetworks.com /CVE-2020-1998 · x_refsource_MISC, x_transferred

Sources

CVE List: CVE-2020-1998
NVD: CVE-2020-1998

vulnwire keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA; records that alias each other are merged. Machine-readable: JSON.