CVE-2020-1998

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

At a glance

Severity: MEDIUM 5.4
EPSS: EPSS 0.89 % · percentile 59 (2026-10-27)
State: PUBLISHED
Published: 2020-05-13
Updated: 2024-09-16
Assigner: palo_alto
NVD status: Modified

Description

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.

Scores

Version	Score	Vector	Scored by
CVSS 3.1	MEDIUM 5.4	CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N	palo_alto
CVSS 3.1	MEDIUM 5.4	CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N	NVD · psirt@paloaltonetworks.com (Secondary)
CVSS 3.1	HIGH 8.8	CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H	NVD · nvd@nist.gov (Primary)
CVSS 2.0	MEDIUM 6.5	AV:N/AC:L/Au:S/C:P/I:P/A:P	NVD · nvd@nist.gov (Primary)

Weaknesses (CWE)

European references

ENISA EUVD · EUVD-2020-12788
GCVE · GCVE-0-2020-1998

CERT-FR advisories

CERTFR-2020-AVI-290 — Multiples vulnérabilités dans Palo Alto PAN-OS et GlobalProtect · cert.ssi.gouv.fr

Affected configurations (NVD CPE)

cpe:2.3:o:paloaltonetworks:pan-os:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* ≥ 7.1.0 < 7.1.26
cpe:2.3:o:paloaltonetworks:pan-os:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* ≥ 8.0.0 ≤ 8.0.20
cpe:2.3:o:paloaltonetworks:pan-os:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* ≥ 8.1.0 < 8.1.13
cpe:2.3:o:paloaltonetworks:pan-os:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* ≥ 9.0.0 < 9.0.6
cpe:2.3:o:paloaltonetworks:pan-os:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* ≥ 9.1.0 < 9.1.1

Affected products

Product	Versions
Palo Alto Networks · PAN-OS	affected 8.0.* ; affected 8.1 < 8.1.13 ; affected 7.1 < 7.1.26 ; affected 9.0 < 9.0.6 ; affected 9.1 < 9.1.1

References

https://security.paloaltonetworks.com/CVE-2020-1998

Sources

Source	Licence
CVE List (CVEProject cvelistV5)	CVE Program Terms of Use
EPSS (FIRST.org)	FIRST — attribution requested
ENISA EUVD	ENISA — reproduction authorised, source acknowledged
CERT-FR (ANSSI)	Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0
NVD (NIST) via fkie-cad/nvd-json-data-feeds	Public domain — this product uses data from the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD