An incorrect privilege assignment vulnerability in the Palo Alto Networks GlobalProtect™ App on enables a locally authenticated non administrative user to escalate their privileges to root on macOS and Linux or NTAUTHORITY SYSTEM on Windows.
The GlobalProtect app on iOS, Android, Chrome OS and GlobalProtect UWP app are not affected.
The product searches for critical resources using an externally-supplied search path that can point to resources that are not under the product’s direct control.
This might allow attackers to execute their own programs, access unauthorized data files, or modify configuration in unexpected ways. If the product uses a search path to locate critical resources such as programs, then an attacker could modify that search path to point to a malicious program, which the targeted product would then execute. The problem extends to any type of critical resource that the product trusts. Some of the most common variants of untrusted search path are: