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CVE-2020-2040

28
FAUCET Score

CVE-2020-2040 is a critical buffer overflow vulnerability in Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS that allows unauthenticated attackers to disrupt system processes and potentially execute arbitrary code with root privileges. This affects various versions of PAN-OS 8.0, 8.1, 9.0, and 9.1. With a CVSS score of 9.8 (Critical), it has a network attack vector, low attack complexity, and high impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability. While not listed in CISA KEV, there is no public exploit code (Metasploit, Nuclei, ExploitDB), but it has garnered significant community discussion and media coverage, indicating awareness of its severity.

Impacted Technologies

VendorProductVersion(s)CPE
>= 8.0.0, <= 8.0.20CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:o:paloaltonetworks:pan-os:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
>= 8.1.0, < 8.1.15CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:o:paloaltonetworks:pan-os:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
>= 9.0.0, < 9.0.9CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:o:paloaltonetworks:pan-os:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
>= 9.1.0, < 9.1.3CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:o:paloaltonetworks:pan-os:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
>= 8.1, < 8.1.15CPE match
cpe:2.3:o:paloaltonetworks:pan-os:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

CVSS Data

CVSS version used by this source: 3.1

9.8CRITICAL

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Attack Vector
NETWORK
Attack Complexity
LOW
Privileges Required
NONE
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality Impact
HIGH
Integrity Impact
HIGH
Availability Impact
HIGH
Exploitability Score
3.9
Impact Score
5.9
CvssVersion
3.1

Exploit Intelligence

EPSS Score
3.94%
Probability of exploitation in next 30 days
EPSS Percentile
89.3%
Percentile rank of EPSS score among Peer Group
As of 2026-07-28
Model: v2026.06.15
This CVE's current EPSS score of 0.0394 is in the 82nd percentile among its peer group of 36,897 CVEs.

Social Chatter

The average CVE in this peer group has 0.0 Twitter, 0.1 Reddit, 0.3 Bluesky, 0.3 Mastodon, and 2.4 GitHub mentions.

Media Mentions

The average CVE in this peer group has 0.3 InfoSec Media, 0.0 Vendor Blog, and 0.0 Security Researcher mentions.

Remediation

Vendor Patches (1)

paloaltovendor investigatingvia nvd_reference
View patch

References

security.paloaltonetworks.com / CVE-2020-2040
Vendor Advisory