CVE-2019-17437

An improper authentication check in Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS may allow an authenticated low privileged non-superuser custom role user to elevate privileges and become superuser. This issue affects PAN-OS 7.1 versions prior to 7.1.25; 8.0 versions prior to 8.0.20; 8.1 versions prior to 8.1.11; 9.0 versions prior to 9.0.5. PAN-OS version 7.0 and prior EOL versions have not been evaluated for this issue.

Weakness

The product does not handle or incorrectly handles when it has insufficient privileges to access resources or functionality as specified by their permissions. This may cause it to follow unexpected code paths that may leave the product in an invalid state.

Affected Software

Potential Mitigations

• Compartmentalize the system to have “safe” areas where trust boundaries can be unambiguously drawn. Do not allow sensitive data to go outside of the trust boundary and always be careful when interfacing with a compartment outside of the safe area.
• Ensure that appropriate compartmentalization is built into the system design, and the compartmentalization allows for and reinforces privilege separation functionality. Architects and designers should rely on the principle of least privilege to decide the appropriate time to use privileges and the time to drop privileges.

References

• https://securityadvisories.paloaltonetworks.com/Home/Detail/159
• https://securityadvisories.paloaltonetworks.com/Home/Detail/159