CVE-2020-1981 is a local privilege escalation vulnerability in PAN-OS 8.1 versions prior to 8.1.13, stemming from predictable temporary filenames. An attacker who has already bypassed the restricted shell can exploit this to execute commands as a low-privileged user and gain root access on affected Palo Alto Networks hardware or virtual appliances. With a CVSS score of 7.8 (High), this vulnerability has a low attack complexity and requires local access, but can lead to high impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability. There is no evidence of active exploitation, public exploit code (Metasploit, Nuclei, ExploitDB), or significant community discussion or media coverage surrounding this CVE.
| Vendor | Product | Version(s) | CPE |
|---|---|---|---|
>= 8.1.0, < 8.1.13CPE matchmatch criteria | cpe:2.3:o:paloaltonetworks:pan-os:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
CVSS version used by this source: 3.1
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
No social media mentions found for this CVE.
The average CVE in this peer group has 0.0 Twitter, 0.1 Reddit, 0.2 Bluesky, 0.1 Mastodon, and 0.2 GitHub mentions.
No media coverage found for this CVE.
The average CVE in this peer group has 0.3 InfoSec Media, 0.0 Vendor Blog, and 0.0 Security Researcher mentions.