CVE-2020-2050PAN-OS: Authentication bypass vulnerability in GlobalProtect SSL VPN client certificate verification
- 8.2HighCVSS base score
- 1.0%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 36% of all CVEs
- NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
- NonePublic exploitsnone known yet
Description
An authentication bypass vulnerability exists in the GlobalProtect SSL VPN component of Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS software that allows an attacker to bypass all client certificate checks with an invalid certificate. A remote attacker can successfully authenticate as any user and gain access to restricted VPN network resources when the gateway or portal is configured to rely entirely on certificate-based authentication. Impacted features that use SSL VPN with client certificate verification are: GlobalProtect Gateway, GlobalProtect Portal, GlobalProtect Clientless VPN In configurations where client certificate verification is used in conjunction with other authentication methods, the protections added by the certificate check are ignored as a result of this issue. This issue impacts: PAN-OS 8.1 versions earlier than PAN-OS 8.1.17; PAN-OS 9.0 versions earlier than PAN-OS 9.0.11; PAN-OS 9.1 versions earlier than PAN-OS 9.1.5; PAN-OS 10.0 versions earlier than PAN-OS 10.0.1.
Timeline
ID reserved
By palo_alto
- 11 months later
· 11 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 | High8.2 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:L/A:N |
| NVDNVD · Modified | 3.1 | High8.2 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:L/A:N |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 1.0% · top 36% of all CVEs (14 Nov 2026)
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: High 8.2.
Affected products
- affected 8.1 – < 8.1.17
- affected 9.0 – < 9.0.11
- affected 9.1 – < 9.1.5
- affected 10.0 – < 10.0.1
What to do
Solution: This issue is fixed in PAN-OS 8.1.17, PAN-OS 9.0.11, PAN-OS 9.1.5, PAN-OS 10.0.1, and all later PAN-OS versions.
Workaround: This issue can be mitigated by configuring GlobalProtect SSL VPN to require gateway and portal users to authenticate with their credentials. Other authentication methods are not impacted by this issue.
Exploitation: Palo Alto Networks is not aware of any malicious exploitation of this issue.
References
References1
- https://security.paloaltonetworks.com/CVE-2020-2050 (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-2020-22076 (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-2020-2050)Record last updated .