Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS: vulnerability flaw under attack

What is affected

Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS is mostly run by companies, schools and public bodies, not on home computers. You are unlikely to have it yourself, but organisations that hold your data may. Breaches that start with flaws like this one are how personal data ends up leaked.

Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS contains a vulnerability in parsing and logging malicious DNS packets in the DNS Security feature that, when exploited, allows an unauthenticated attacker to remotely reboot the firewall. Repeated attempts to trigger this condition will cause the firewall to enter maintenance mode.

What an attacker can do

This is a vulnerability flaw. It lets an attacker misuse the product in a way its maker did not intend. CISA lists it because attackers are confirmed to be using it against real systems.

How it is reached

Over the internet or network

Access the attacker needs

No account needed

Does the victim have to do something?

No, works without the victim doing anything

What to do

1. At home: nothing to install. Keep your own devices updated and use a different password for every service, so that a breach at one organisation does not open your other accounts.
2. If you administer Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS at work: apply the vendor's fix or mitigation now and review logs for signs of compromise, because the flaw was being exploited before it was listed.
3. If the product is past its support date and no fix exists, take it off the internet or retire it.

Apply mitigations per vendor instructions or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable.

Vendor advisories and fixes

• security.paloaltonetworks.comsecurity.paloaltonetworks.com/CVE-2024-3393

How urgent is it

CISA added this vulnerability to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalogue on December 30, 2024, which means there is reliable evidence of attacks in the wild. US federal agencies must fix it by January 20, 2025, a deadline that has already passed. That deadline does not bind anyone else, but it shows how seriously the agency rates it.

The EPSS model estimates a 29% probability that this flaw will be exploited somewhere in the next 30 days. That is higher than 98% of all scored vulnerabilities.

Its CVSS severity score is 8.7 out of 10 (high), as recorded in the US National Vulnerability Database.

Technical description

A Denial of Service vulnerability in the DNS Security feature of Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS software allows an unauthenticated attacker to send a malicious packet through the data plane of the firewall that reboots the firewall. Repeated attempts to trigger this condition will cause the firewall to enter maintenance mode.