Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS: file access 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 an external control of file name or path vulnerability. Successful exploitation enables an authenticated attacker with network access to the management web interface to read files on the PAN-OS filesystem that are readable by the “nobody” user.

What an attacker can do

This is a file access flaw. It lets an attacker read or write files they should never reach, such as configuration files that hold passwords, or upload a malicious file that the system then runs.

How it is reached

Over the internet or network

Access the attacker needs

A basic user account

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-2025-0111

How urgent is it

CISA added this vulnerability to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalogue on February 20, 2025, which means there is reliable evidence of attacks in the wild. US federal agencies must fix it by March 13, 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 2.0% probability that this flaw will be exploited somewhere in the next 30 days. That is higher than 80% of all scored vulnerabilities.

Its CVSS severity score is 7.1 out of 10 (high), as recorded in the US National Vulnerability Database.

Technical description

An authenticated file read vulnerability in the Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS software enables an authenticated attacker with network access to the management web interface to read files on the PAN-OS filesystem that are readable by the “nobody” user. You can greatly reduce the risk of this issue by restricting access to the management web interface to only trusted internal IP addresses according to our recommended best practices deployment guidelines https://live.paloaltonetworks.com/t5/community-blogs/tips-amp-tricks-how-to-secure-the-management-access-of-your-palo/ba-p/464431 . This issue does not affect Cloud NGFW or Prisma Access software.