PAN-OS: Predictable temporary filename vulnerability allows local privilege escalation

published 2020-03-11 6 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2020-12771

cvss: 7.0; version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev: Not listed; not in CISA's catalog
epss: 0.4%; EPSS 0.4% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 30%
public exploits: 0; none known

A predictable temporary filename vulnerability in PAN-OS allows local privilege escalation. This issue allows a local attacker who bypassed the restricted shell to execute commands as a low privileged user and gain root access on the PAN-OS hardware or virtual appliance. This issue affects only PAN-OS 8.1 versions earlier than PAN-OS 8.1.13. This issue does not affect PAN-OS 7.1, PAN-OS 9.0, or later PAN-OS versions.

Patch / fix

fixed in 1

paloaltonetworks pan-os 8.1.13

Exploit prediction

0.36% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 30% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by	version	score	vector
CNA	3.1	7.0	CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD	3.1	7.8	CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD	2.0	7.2	AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

Affected products

Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS

Classification

Weakness

CWE-377 DEPRECATED: Insecure Temporary File
CWE-668 Exposure of Resource to Wrong Sphere

Technology feeds

Palo Alto PAN-OS rss critical rss

References

security.paloaltonetworks.com /CVE-2020-1981
issue-tracking, vendor-advisory

Sources

CVE List CVE-2020-1981
NVD CVE-2020-1981

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Summary