CVE-2020-1978
5.8 · MEDIUMOverview
CVE-2020-1978 is a medium-severity vulnerability affecting paloaltonetworks vm-series. It was published on April 8, 2020 and has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 5.8 (MEDIUM).
This vulnerability has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 5.8, rated MEDIUM. It requires local or adjacent network access to exploit. Some level of privileges is required for exploitation.
Technical Description
TechSupport files generated on Palo Alto Networks VM Series firewalls for Microsoft Azure platform configured with high availability (HA) inadvertently collect Azure dashboard service account credentials. These credentials are equivalent to the credentials associated with the Contributor role in Azure. A user with the credentials will be able to manage all the Azure resources in the subscription except for granting access to other resources. These credentials do not allow login access to the VMs themselves. This issue affects VM Series Plugin versions before 1.0.9 for PAN-OS 9.0. This issue does not affect VM Series in non-HA configurations or on other cloud platforms. It does not affect hardware firewall appliances. Since becoming aware of the issue, Palo Alto Networks has safely deleted all the tech support files with the credentials. We now filter and remove these credentials from all TechSupport files sent to us. The TechSupport files uploaded to Palo Alto Networks systems were onl
Remediation
Check the references section for vendor advisories and patches from paloaltonetworks. Update vm-series to the latest patched version. If immediate patching is not possible, review the CVSS vector to understand the attack surface and apply compensating controls such as network segmentation or access restrictions.
Affected Products
| Vendor | Product | Versions | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| paloaltonetworks | vm-series | >= 1.0, < 1.0.9 | Affected |
Frequently Asked Questions
What is CVE-2020-1978?
CVE-2020-1978 is a medium-severity vulnerability affecting paloaltonetworks vm-series. It was published on April 8, 2020 and has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 5.8 (MEDIUM).
How severe is CVE-2020-1978?
This vulnerability has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 5.8, rated MEDIUM. It requires local or adjacent network access to exploit. Some level of privileges is required for exploitation.
How do I fix or remediate CVE-2020-1978?
Check the references section for vendor advisories and patches from paloaltonetworks. Update vm-series to the latest patched version. If immediate patching is not possible, review the CVSS vector to understand the attack surface and apply compensating controls such as network segmentation or access restrictions.
How can CyberStrike help with CVE-2020-1978?
CyberStrike's AI-powered security agents can automatically detect CVE-2020-1978 across your infrastructure using autonomous pentesting, DAST scanning, and HackBrowser. The platform continuously monitors for known vulnerabilities and provides actionable remediation guidance prioritized by real-world exploitability.
How CyberStrike Helps
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