CriticalCVE-2017-15944

    Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS Remote Code Execution Vulnerability (CVE-2017-15944)

    Published In CISA KEV since Sources: CVE.org

    What is affected, what to do

    Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS before 6.1.19, 7.0.x before 7.0.19, 7.1.x before 7.1.14, and 8.0.x before 8.0.6 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via vectors involving the management interface.

    The vulnerability is being actively exploited; treat it as a priority. Update Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS to version 6.1.19, Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS to version 7.0.19, Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS to version 7.1.14. Immediate actions, mitigation and detection rules are in the runbook below.

    Affected
    • Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS lt *..6.1.19
    • Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS lt 7.0.0..7.0.19
    • Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS lt 7.1.0..7.1.14
    • Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS lt 8.0.0..8.0.6
    Fixed in
    • Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS 6.1.19
    • Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS 7.0.19
    • Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS 7.1.14
    • Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS 8.0.6

    Not sure whether and how you are affected? Ask a question about this vulnerability

    Metrics

    9.8

    Priority

    XIEM Effective CVSS: highest available CVSS rating from NVD and vendor data.

    Source: NVD, CVSS v3

    9.8

    CVSS v3

    Severity Critical on the scale from 0 to 10.

    Source: CVE.org

    98.3 %

    EPSS score

    High — model estimates ≥ 50% chance of real-world exploitation within 30 days.

    Source: FIRST EPSS, percentile 99.92

    Show all metrics
    Severity
    Critical
    Priority (0–325)

    The priority score is a consolidated metric that condenses several individual signals into a single, action-guiding ranking: technical severity (CVSS), exploitation likelihood (EPSS), known-exploited status (KEV) and the context of the affected asset. The aim is to answer the only truly important question in vulnerability management: what first?

    Read in glossary
    228.87 Methodology
    Exploit maturity

    An exploit is code or a technique that specifically uses a concrete vulnerability to force unintended behaviour — such as executing code or escalating privileges. It is the tool that turns a theoretical flaw into a practical attack.

    Read in glossary
    actively exploited
    XIEM Effective CVSS

    XIEM® is the tiered managed-security operating model from NEOSEC and a registered trademark of NEOSEC GmbH. It extends classic SIEM — the central collection, normalisation and correlation of security-relevant events — with endpoint forensics, network visibility and deception technology, and consolidates them into three building tiers: Sentry, Orchestrate and Command.

    Read in glossary
    9.8 Methodology
    CVSS v3

    CVSS is the globally established, open standard for assessing the technical severity of a vulnerability on a scale from 0 to 10. It describes how easily a flaw can be exploited and what damage it can cause — but not how likely its actual exploitation is. CVSS and the complementary EPSS deliberately answer different questions.

    Read in glossary
    9.8
    EPSS score

    The EPSS score is the absolute model output for an individual vulnerability: the estimated probability of real-world exploitation within the next 30 days, expressed as a value between 0 and 1 (i.e. 0 % to 100 %). A score of 0.42 means „the model estimates a 42 % chance of real-world exploitation within 30 days“.

    Read in glossary
    98.3 %
    High — model estimates ≥ 50% chance of real-world exploitation within 30 days.
    EPSS percentile

    The EPSS percentile is the relative position of a vulnerability within all EPSS-scored CVEs, expressed as a value between 0 and 1. A percentile of 0.90 means „this CVE has a higher EPSS score than 90 % of all other scored CVEs“. Unlike the EPSS score, it is not a probability — but a positioning within a ranking.

    Read in glossary
    99.92
    Critical — this CVE ranks in the top fifth of all CVEs scored today (rank ≥ 80%).
    KEV status

    The KEV catalogue is a list maintained by the US authority CISA of vulnerabilities for which active exploitation in the wild has been confirmed. It answers not the question „how severe?“ but „is it already being attacked?“ — thereby sharply prioritising patching.

    Read in glossary
    Actively exploited
    Published
    In CISA KEV since

    The KEV catalogue is a list maintained by the US authority CISA of vulnerabilities for which active exploitation in the wild has been confirmed. It answers not the question „how severe?“ but „is it already being attacked?“ — thereby sharply prioritising patching.

    Read in glossary

    Response and mitigation

    Why act now?

    Prioritisation rationale

    This CVE sits on KEV because an exposed PAN-OS management plane allows unauthenticated, network-reachable code execution directly on a perimeter device — the worst possible outcome for a security appliance meant to enforce zone separation. Attackers typically use flaws like this for initial access, then pivot to harvesting VPN configurations, internal routing data and stored credentials. The target profile is any organisation running PAN-OS firewalls where the MGT interface is reachable from the internet, often through misconfiguration around Panorama or GlobalProtect deployments. Exploitation likelihood is among the highest in the entire catalogue; treat every internet-reachable, unpatched instance as already compromised until forensics prove otherwise.

    1. Runbook step 1

      Immediate response (0-24 h)

      • Patch PAN-OS immediately to a fixed release: 6.1.19, 7.0.19, 7.1.14 or 8.0.6 (or any newer supported branch such as 8.1/9.x/10.x/11.x). Devices still on the long-EoL 6.1 or 7.0 trains should be migrated to a current major release in the same change window.
      • Pull the management interface (MGT port, typically ethernet0/0 or a dedicated out-of-band port) off any untrusted network. Allow TCP/443 (WebUI), TCP/22 (SSH) and TCP/3978 (Panorama) only from a dedicated admin VLAN or jump-host segment.
      • Run Shodan/Censys queries against your own ASN and IP ranges (http.title:"PAN-OS", ssl.cert.subject.cn:*paloalto*) and treat every internet-exposed management interface as an incident, not a finding.
      • Rotate all local admin accounts on affected firewalls, invalidate API keys (request api-key reset) and refresh RADIUS/TACACS+ shared secrets — any RCE on the management plane means credentials must be assumed compromised.
      • Capture running configuration and system logs forensically (scp export configuration …, tech-support file) before applying the patch, so you preserve any attacker artefacts.

    2. Runbook step 2

      Mitigation layers

      • Network segmentation: enforce an ACL on the upstream router/firewall that whitelists inbound traffic to PAN-OS MGT IPs on TCP/443, TCP/22, TCP/3978 only from SOC jump hosts, Panorama, and NTP/DNS/syslog collectors.
      • Keep GlobalProtect portals and service interfaces separate from the management plane — this vulnerability lives on the MGT interface; data-plane services remain reachable on their own interfaces. Never use "Permitted IP Addresses" on a data-plane interface as a shortcut to management access.
      • Do not front the PAN-OS WebUI with a generic reverse proxy; instead require VPN plus MFA for admin access.
      • Configuration hardening: tighten set deviceconfig system permitted-ip on the MGT interface; restrict SSL profiles to TLS 1.2+; disable unused services (Telnet, HTTP, SNMP v1/v2c).
      • IAM hardening: least-privilege admin roles (no superuser for monitoring staff), SAML/RADIUS-backed MFA, session timeout reduced to 10 minutes.
      • Keep upstream IPS signatures current; Palo Alto publishes Threat-IDs targeting scanning against PAN-OS management paths — mirror equivalent coverage in an in-line IPS such as Suricata.

    3. Runbook step 3

      Detection rules

      • Zeek/Suricata HTTP logs for POST requests against PAN-OS management URIs from non-whitelisted source IPs: uri contains "/esp/" OR "/php/" OR "/api/" AND user_agent not in (known admin UAs).
      • Management/web access logs showing shell-command fragments in URL parameters (;, |, $(, wget , curl , /tmp/), especially when followed by HTTP 200 rather than 403/404.
      • PAN-OS system log for unexpected admin logins (type general, subtype auth-success) outside business hours or from geographically implausible sources. Sigma shape: product=panos AND event_id=auth-success AND src_ip not in admin_subnets.
      • Outbound connections sourced from the MGT interface to arbitrary destinations — the management plane should only talk to update servers, NTP, syslog and Panorama. KQL: CommonSecurityLog | where DeviceVendor == "Palo Alto Networks" | where SourceIP in (mgt_ips) | where DestinationIP !in (allowed_mgt_destinations).
      • Configuration changes without a matching change-ticket entry: alert on config log subtype with admin != known_user or commits outside approved change windows.

    Detection rules

    No NEOSEC detection rule is available for this vulnerability yet.

    Classification under NIS2 and CRA

    Rule-based classification from exploitation status and severity. It does not replace a case-by-case assessment.

    NIS2

    NIS2 is EU Directive (EU) 2022/2555 to raise the level of cybersecurity across the Union. It substantially broadens obligations compared with the first NIS directive: more sectors, mandatory risk management, staged reporting duties and personal accountability of senior management.

    Read in glossary
    Actively exploited: treat the vulnerability as a priority in vulnerability handling under Art. 21(2)(e) NIS2. If it is exploited in your environment, check the reporting obligation under Art. 23 (early warning within 24 hours).
    CRA

    The CRA is EU Regulation (EU) 2024/2847 setting horizontal cybersecurity requirements for „products with digital elements“ — from industrial controllers and software to connected consumer devices. For the first time manufacturers must ensure security across the entire product lifecycle, handle vulnerabilities and provide security updates.

    Read in glossary
    Since 11.09.2026, manufacturers of affected products with digital elements must report actively exploited vulnerabilities under Art. 14 CRA, with an early warning within 24 hours via ENISA's single reporting platform.
    ISO/IEC 27001

    ISO/IEC 27001 is the internationally leading standard for an information security management system (ISMS). It describes a risk-based, process-oriented framework to systematically plan, implement, review and improve information security.

    Read in glossary
    Control A.8.8, management of technical vulnerabilities: assess relevance to your systems, plan remediation and keep evidence.

    Description

    Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS before 6.1.19, 7.0.x before 7.0.19, 7.1.x before 7.1.14, and 8.0.x before 8.0.6 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via vectors involving the management interface.

    Source: NVD (NIST), cvelistv5, CISA KEV Catalog, CVE.org (MITRE)

    Vendors and products

    Affected operating systems

    Affected operating systems
    Otherpaloaltonetworkspan-os—

    Public exploit references

    Publicly reported proof-of-concepts, exploit modules and detection templates for this vulnerability. NEOSEC links to the original sources only and does not provide any exploit code.

    Public exploit references
    CISA KEV CatalogCISA Known Exploited Vulnerability (opens in a new tab)cisa.govactively exploited
    Exploit-DBEDB-ID 43342 (opens in a new tab)exploit-db.comPoC (publicly reported)reported, not verified—
    Exploit-DBEDB-ID 44597 (opens in a new tab)exploit-db.comPoC (publicly reported)reported, not verified—

    References & sources

    • exploit-db.com44597Exploit, x_refsource_EXPLOIT-DB, Exploit, Third-party advisory, Vulnerability database
    • securitytracker.com1040007Vulnerability database, x_refsource_SECTRACK, Broken link, Third-party advisory, Vulnerability database
    • securityfocus.com102079Vulnerability database, x_refsource_BID, Broken link, Third-party advisory, Vulnerability database
    • exploit-db.com43342Exploit, x_refsource_EXPLOIT-DB, Exploit, Third-party advisory, Vulnerability database
    • security.paloaltonetworks.comCVE-2017-15944x_refsource_CONFIRM, Vendor advisory
    • cisa.govknown-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2017-15944government-resource, US government resource
    Embed badge

    Show the severity and KEV status of this vulnerability on your site – with a link back here. The image is updated hourly.

    Badge preview for CVE-2017-15944
    <a href="https://intel.neosec.eu/en/cve/CVE-2017-15944"><img src="https://intel.neosec.eu/badge/cve/CVE-2017-15944.svg?lang=en" alt="CVE-2017-15944 – NEOSEC Intel" height="20"></a>