CVE-2020-2018 - Improper Authentication

Severity

90%

Complexity

22%

Confidentiality

100%

An authentication bypass vulnerability in Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS Panorama proxy service allows an unauthenticated user with network access to Panorama and the knowledge of the Firewall’s serial number to register the PAN-OS firewall to register the device. After the PAN-OS device is registered, the user can further compromise the PAN-OS instances managed by Panorama. This issue affects: PAN-OS 7.1 versions earlier than 7.1.26; PAN-OS 8.0 versions earlier than 8.0.21; PAN-OS 8.1 versions earlier than 8.1.12; PAN-OS 9.0 versions earlier than 9.0.6.

An authentication bypass vulnerability in Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS Panorama proxy service allows an unauthenticated user with network access to Panorama and the knowledge of the Firewall’s serial number to register the PAN-OS firewall to register the device. After the PAN-OS device is registered, the user can further compromise the PAN-OS instances managed by Panorama. This issue affects: PAN-OS 7.1 versions earlier than 7.1.26; PAN-OS 8.0 versions earlier than 8.0.21; PAN-OS 8.1 versions earlier than 8.1.12; PAN-OS 9.0 versions earlier than 9.0.6.

An authentication bypass vulnerability in the Panorama context switching feature allows an attacker with network access to a Panorama's management interface to gain privileged access to managed firewalls. An attacker requires some knowledge of managed firewalls to exploit this issue. This issue does not affect Panorama configured with custom certificates authentication for communication between Panorama and managed devices. This issue affects: PAN-OS 7.1 versions earlier than 7.1.26; PAN-OS 8.1 versions earlier than 8.1.12; PAN-OS 9.0 versions earlier than 9.0.6; All versions of PAN-OS 8.0.

CVSS 3.1 Base Score 9. CVSS Attack Vector: network. CVSS Attack Complexity: high. CVSS Vector: (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H).

CVSS 2.0 Base Score 9.3. CVSS Attack Vector: network. CVSS Attack Complexity: medium. CVSS Vector: (AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C).

Demo Examples

Improper Authentication

CWE-287

The following code intends to ensure that the user is already logged in. If not, the code performs authentication with the user-provided username and password. If successful, it sets the loggedin and user cookies to "remember" that the user has already logged in. Finally, the code performs administrator tasks if the logged-in user has the "Administrator" username, as recorded in the user cookie.


               
}
}
ExitError("Error: you need to log in first");
);
);
DoAdministratorTasks();

Unfortunately, this code can be bypassed. The attacker can set the cookies independently so that the code does not check the username and password. The attacker could do this with an HTTP request containing headers such as:


               
[body of request]

By setting the loggedin cookie to "true", the attacker bypasses the entire authentication check. By using the "Administrator" value in the user cookie, the attacker also gains privileges to administer the software.

Improper Authentication

CWE-287

Overview

First reported 5 years ago

2020-05-13 19:15:00

Last updated 4 years ago

2020-06-23 19:37:00

Affected Software

Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS

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