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CVE-2020-2016

HIGH
Published 2020-05-13T19:07:14.700757Z
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CVSS Score

V3.1
7.0
/10
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Base Score Metrics
Exploitability: N/A Impact: N/A

EPSS Score

v2025.03.14
0.002
probability
of exploitation in the wild

There is a 0.2% chance that this vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days.

Updated: 2025-06-25
Exploit Probability
Percentile: 0.433
Higher than 43.3% of all CVEs

Attack Vector Metrics

Attack Vector
LOCAL
Attack Complexity
HIGH
Privileges Required
LOW
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED

Impact Metrics

Confidentiality
HIGH
Integrity
HIGH
Availability
HIGH

Description

A race condition due to insecure creation of a file in a temporary directory vulnerability in PAN-OS allows for root privilege escalation from a limited linux user account. This allows an attacker who has escaped the restricted shell as a low privilege administrator, possibly by exploiting another vulnerability, to escalate privileges to become root 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; All versions of PAN-OS 8.0.

Understanding This Vulnerability

This Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) entry provides detailed information about a security vulnerability that has been publicly disclosed. CVEs are standardized identifiers assigned by MITRE Corporation to track and catalog security vulnerabilities across software and hardware products.

The severity rating (HIGH) indicates the potential impact of this vulnerability based on the CVSS (Common Vulnerability Scoring System) framework. Higher severity ratings typically indicate vulnerabilities that could lead to more significant security breaches if exploited. Security teams should prioritize remediation efforts based on severity, exploit availability, and the EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score, which predicts the likelihood of exploitation in the wild.

If this vulnerability affects products or systems in your infrastructure, we recommend reviewing the affected products section, checking for available patches or updates from vendors, and implementing recommended workarounds or solutions until a permanent fix is available. Organizations should also monitor security advisories and threat intelligence feeds for updates about active exploitation of this vulnerability.

Available Exploits

No exploits available for this CVE.

Related News

No news articles found for this CVE.

Affected Products

References

Workarounds

This issue affects the management interface of PAN-OS and is strongly mitigated by following best practices for securing the PAN-OS management interface. Please review the Best Practices for Securing Administrative Access in the PAN-OS technical documentation, available at: https://docs.paloaltonetworks.com.

Solutions

This issue is fixed in PAN-OS 7.1.26, PAN-OS 8.1.13, PAN-OS 9.0.6, PAN-OS 9.1.0, and all later PAN-OS versions.

PAN-OS 8.0 is now end-of-life as of October 31, 2019, and is no longer covered by our Product Security Assurance policies.

Credits & Acknowledgments

Palo Alto Networks thanks the UK's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) for discovering and reporting this issue.

Palo Alto Networks thanks the NCC Group for finding this issue independently during a contracted PAN-OS security assessment.

Timeline

Initial publication

EU Vulnerability Database

Monitored by ENISA for EU cybersecurity

EU Coordination

EU Coordinated

Exploitation Status

No Known Exploitation

ENISA Analysis

Malicious code in bioql (PyPI)

Affected Products (ENISA)

palo alto networks
pan-os

ENISA Scoring

CVSS Score (3.1)

7.0
/10
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

EPSS Score

0.210
probability

Data provided by ENISA EU Vulnerability Database. Last updated: October 3, 2025

GitHub Security Advisories

Community-driven vulnerability intelligence from GitHub

⚠ Unreviewed HIGH

GHSA-phhf-m45q-vcxw

Advisory Details

A race condition due to insecure creation of a file in a temporary directory vulnerability in PAN-OS allows for root privilege escalation from a limited linux user account. This allows an attacker who has escaped the restricted shell as a low privilege administrator, possibly by exploiting another vulnerability, to escalate privileges to become root user.

CVSS Scoring

CVSS Score

7.5

Advisory provided by GitHub Security Advisory Database. Published: May 24, 2022, Modified: May 24, 2022

References

Published: 2020-05-13T19:07:14.700757Z
Last Modified: 2024-09-16T23:31:31.207Z
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