CVE-2022-0018 GlobalProtect App: Information Exposure Vulnerability When Connecting to GlobalProtect Portal With Single Sign-On Enabled
Description
An information exposure vulnerability exists in the Palo Alto Networks GlobalProtect app on Windows and MacOS where the credentials of the local user account are sent to the GlobalProtect portal when the Single Sign-On feature is enabled in the GlobalProtect portal configuration.
This product behavior is intentional and poses no security risk when connecting to trusted GlobalProtect portals configured to use the same Single Sign-On credentials both for the local user account as well as the GlobalProtect login. However when the credentials are different, the local account credentials are inadvertently sent to the GlobalProtect portal for authentication. A third party MITM type of attacker cannot see these credentials in transit.
This vulnerability is a concern where the GlobalProtect app is deployed on Bring-your-Own-Device (BYOD) type of clients with private local user accounts or GlobalProtect app is used to connect to different organizations.
Fixed versions of GlobalProtect app have an app setting to prevent the transmission of the user's local user credentials to the target GlobalProtect portal regardless of the portal configuration.
This issue impacts:
GlobalProtect app 5.1 versions earlier than GlobalProtect app 5.1.10 on Windows and MacOS;
GlobalProtect app 5.2 versions earlier than GlobalProtect app 5.2.9 on Windows and MacOS
This issue does not affect GlobalProtect app on other platforms.
Product Status
| Versions | Affected | Unaffected |
|---|---|---|
| GlobalProtect App 5.3 | None | 5.3.* |
| GlobalProtect App 5.2 | < 5.2.9 on Windows and MacOS | >= 5.2.9 on Windows and MacOS |
| GlobalProtect App 5.1 | < 5.1.10 on Windows and MacOS | >= 5.1.10 on Windows and MacOS |
Severity: MEDIUM
CVSSv3.1 Base Score: 6.1 (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:N/A:N)
Exploitation Status
Palo Alto Networks is not aware of any malicious exploitation of this issue.
Weakness Type
CWE-201 Information Exposure Through Sent Data
Solution
This issue is fixed in GlobalProtect app 5.1.10 on Windows and MacOS, GlobalProtect app 5.2.9 on Windows and MacOS, and all later GlobalProtect app versions with the ‘force-sso-disable’ app setting.
Set ‘force-sso-disable’ to ‘yes’ to prevent unintended transmission of the local user credentials as described here:
Workarounds and Mitigations
There are no known workarounds for this issue.