CVE-2020-1979 PAN-OS: A format string vulnerability in PAN-OS log daemon (logd) on Panorama allows local privilege escalation

What is CVE-2020-1979?

CVE-2020-1979 is a high-severity code injection vulnerability in Paloaltonetworks Pan-Os, published on 11 Mar 2020. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

Official description

A format string vulnerability in the PAN-OS log daemon (logd) on Panorama allows a network based attacker with knowledge of registered firewall devices and access to Panorama management interfaces to execute arbitrary code, bypassing the restricted shell and escalating privileges. This issue affects only PAN-OS 8.1 versions earlier than PAN-OS 8.1.13 on Panorama. This issue does not affect PAN-OS 7.1, PAN-OS 9.0, or later PAN-OS versions.

Weakness: CWE-134

Which versions are affected by CVE-2020-1979?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Paloaltonetworks Pan-Os.

How do I fix CVE-2020-1979?

No fix has been published for CVE-2020-1979 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

Upgrade, and never evaluate templates, expressions or code built from user input. More about Code injection.

Is CVE-2020-1979 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-1979 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Other vulnerabilities in Paloaltonetworks Pan-Os

• CVE-2024-3400 Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS Command Injection Exploited Critical 10.0
• CVE-2020-2021 Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS Authentication Bypass Exploited Critical 10.0
• CVE-2017-15944 Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS Remote Code Execution Exploited Critical 9.8
• CVE-2026-0300 Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS Out-of-bounds Write Exploited Critical 9.3
• CVE-2024-0012 Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS Management Interface Authentication Bypass Exploited Critical 9.3

All Paloaltonetworks Pan-Os vulnerabilities

Sources

• CVE record
• NVD
• OSV
• GitHub advisory
• How this page is made

Also known as GHSA-x3hm-crq5-m74w.