CVE-2019-17440 PAN-OS on PA-7000 Series: Improper restriction of communication to Log Forwarding Card (LFC) allows root access

Description

Improper restriction of communications to Log Forwarding Card (LFC) on PA-7000 Series devices with second-generation Switch Management Card (SMC) may allow an attacker with network access to the LFC to gain root access to PAN-OS.

This issue affects PAN-OS 9.0 versions prior to 9.0.5-h3 on PA-7080 and PA-7050 devices with an LFC installed and configured.

This issue does not affect PA-7000 Series deployments using the first-generation SMC and the Log Processing Card (LPC).

This issue does not affect any other PA series devices.

This issue does not affect devices without an LFC.

This issue does not affect PAN-OS 8.1 or prior releases.

This issue only affected a very limited number of customers and we undertook individual outreach to help them upgrade. At the time of publication, all identified customers have upgraded SW or content and are not impacted.

Product Status

Severity: CRITICAL

CVSSv3.1 Base Score: 10 (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H)

Exploitation Status

Palo Alto Networks is not aware of any exploitation of this issue.

Weakness Type

CWE-923 Improper Restriction of Communication Channel to Intended Endpoints

Solution

This issue is fixed in 9.0.5-h3 and all subsequent releases. Content update 8218-5815 also fixes the issue.

Workarounds and Mitigations

(1) Content update 8218-5815 can be applied without requiring a software update. Once the content update is installed please ensure that next PAN-OS upgrade is to a fixed version (9.0.5-h3 or later). Do not upgrade or downgrade to an affected release, as it can reintroduce the vulnerability.

(2) Configure security policies to prevent network sessions destined to LFC.

(3) Ensure that LFC is only connected to a secured administrative network with access restricted to trusted users.

(4) Disable or disconnect LFC from the network until fixes can be applied.

Acknowledgments