CVE-2020-2038PAN-OS: OS command injection vulnerability in the management web interface
- 7.2HighCVSS base score
- 86.2%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 0.3% of all CVEs
- NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
- 2Public exploitsMetasploit, Nuclei and Exploit-DB
Description
An OS Command Injection vulnerability in the PAN-OS management interface that allows authenticated administrators to execute arbitrary OS commands with root privileges. This issue impacts: PAN-OS 9.0 versions earlier than 9.0.10; PAN-OS 9.1 versions earlier than 9.1.4; PAN-OS 10.0 versions earlier than 10.0.1.
Public exploit
An exploit or proof of concept is public: anyone can try it against an unpatched system. The public collections list a Metasploit module and an Exploit-DB entry for it.
Show the exploits2
Metasploit modules1 module
- Palo Alto Networks Authenticated Remote Code Execution (Metasploit module) (opens in a new tab)
exploit/linux/http/panos_op_cmd_execRank excellentdisclosed 9 Sept 2020
Exploit-DB1 entry
- PAN-OS 10.0 - Remote Code Execution (RCE) (Authenticated) (Exploit-DB entry) (opens in a new tab)
EDB-ID 51005remote, multiplepublished 9 Aug 2022Not verified
Modules, templates and exploits as listed by the Metasploit Framework (BSD-3-Clause), ProjectDiscovery's Nuclei templates (MIT) and the Exploit Database (GPLv2), read once a day. Where the data comes from
Timeline
ID reserved
By palo_alto
- 9 months later
· 9 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 | High7.2 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H |
| NVDNVD · Modified | 3.1 | High7.2 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 86.2% · top 0.3% of all CVEs (14 Nov 2026)
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: High 7.2.
Affected products
- unaffected 8.1.*
- affected 10.0 – < 10.0.1
- affected 9.0 – < 9.0.10
- affected 9.1 – < 9.1.4
What to do
Solution: This issue is fixed in PAN-OS 9.0.10, PAN-OS 9.1.4, PAN-OS 10.0.1, and all later PAN-OS versions.
Workaround: This issue impacts the PAN-OS management web interface but you can mitigate the impact of this issue by following best practices for securing the PAN-OS management web interface. Please review the Best Practices for Securing Administrative Access in the PAN-OS technical documentation, available at https://docs.paloaltonetworks.com/best-practices.
Exploitation: Palo Alto Networks is not aware of any malicious attempts to exploit this vulnerability.
References
References3
- https://security.paloaltonetworks.com/CVE-2020-2038 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
- http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/168008/PAN-OS-10.0-Remote-Code-Execution.html (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
- http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/168408/Palo-Alto-Networks-Authenticated-Remote-Code-Execution.html (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-2020-22064 (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-2020-2038)Record last updated .