- 5.4MediumCVSS base score
- 0.89%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 40% of all CVEs
- NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
- NonePublic exploitsnone known yet
Description
An improper authorization vulnerability in PAN-OS that mistakenly uses the permissions of local linux users instead of the intended SAML permissions of the account when the username is shared for the purposes of SSO authentication. This can result in authentication bypass and unintended resource access for the 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; PAN-OS 9.1 versions earlier than 9.1.1; All versions of PAN-OS 8.0.
Timeline
ID reserved
By palo_alto
- 5 months later
· 5 months later
Published
- 4 years later
· 4 years later
Record updated
Changes after publication (a new score, a public exploit, EPSS crossing 1, 10 or 50 %, leaving KEV) are kept since November 2026; earlier ones are not known.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| palo_altoCNA (assigner) | 3.1 | Medium5.4 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N |
| NVDNVD · Modified | 3.1 | High8.8 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 0.89% · top 40% of all CVEs (10 Nov 2026)
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: Medium 5.4.
Affected products
- affected 8.0.*
- affected 8.1 – < 8.1.13
- affected 7.1 – < 7.1.26
- affected 9.0 – < 9.0.6
- affected 9.1 – < 9.1.1
What to do
Solution: This issue is fixed in PAN-OS 7.1.26, PAN-OS 8.1.13, PAN-OS 9.0.6, PAN-OS 9.1.1, and all later PAN-OS versions. PAN-OS 8.0 is now end-of-life as of October 31, 2019, and is no longer covered by our Product Security Assurance policies.
Workaround: The impact of this vulnerability can be mitigated by removing shared usernames between local linux users and SAML enabled users.
References
1
- https://security.paloaltonetworks.com/CVE-2020-1998 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- EUVD EUVD-2020-12788 (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisories (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://cveledger.app/cve/CVE-2020-1998)Record last updated .