CVE-2020-2016 PAN-OS: Temporary file race condition vulnerability in PAN-OS leads to local privilege escalation
A race condition in PAN-OS allows local attackers to escalate privileges to root after escaping a restricted shell.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Any signed-in user
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- None listed
What is CVE-2020-2016?
CVE-2020-2016 is a high-severity vulnerability in Paloaltonetworks Pan-Os, published on 13 May 2020. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Official 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.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2020-2016?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Paloaltonetworks Pan-Os.
How do I fix CVE-2020-2016?
No fix has been published for CVE-2020-2016 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.
Is CVE-2020-2016 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-2016 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Paloaltonetworks Pan-Os
- CVE-2024-3400 Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS Command Injection
- CVE-2020-2021 Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS Authentication Bypass
- CVE-2017-15944 Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS Remote Code Execution
- CVE-2026-0300 Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS Out-of-bounds Write
- CVE-2024-0012 Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS Management Interface Authentication Bypass
Sources
Also known as GHSA-phhf-m45q-vcxw.