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Palo Alto Networks Patches Two Firewall Zero-Days Used in Attacks

American multinational cybersecurity company, Palo Alto Networks, has released security patches for two critical zero-day vulnerabilities that have been exploited in its Next-Generation Firewalls (NGFW).

These vulnerabilities, tagged as CVE-2022-20041 and CVE-2022-20042, pose significant risks to enterprise networks around the globe.

Zero-Day Exploits: A Closer Look

A zero-day vulnerability refers to a software security flaw that is unknown to those who should ideally be interested in its mitigation, like the software vendor.

In this case, the vulnerabilities found in the software of Palo Alto’s firewall devices were being exploited in the wild before the vendor could provide a fix.

Hence, these bugs are termed “zero-days.”

The Vulnerabilities

The first vulnerability, CVE-2022-20041, is a buffer overflow vulnerability in the NGFW’s packet-processing functions.

By exploiting this vulnerability, an attacker could execute arbitrary code on the firewall device, making it a highly critical vulnerability with a CVSS score of 9.8 out of 10.

The second vulnerability, CVE-2022-20042, is a command injection flaw in the firewall’s management interface.

An authenticated attacker could execute arbitrary OS commands with root privileges if they successfully exploit this vulnerability.

It is also critical with a CVSS score of 9.1.

Preventing Exploitation

Palo Alto Networks released the security patches – PAN-OS 9.1.10, PAN-OS 9.0.12, PAN-OS 8.1.17 – to fix these zero-days.

The company urged the customers using affected versions to upgrade their systems immediately to prevent any potential exploitation.

Real-world Ramifications

Cybersecurity experts express concern over these zero-days, as the exploitation of these vulnerabilities could lead to potentially catastrophic incidents, such as the SolarWinds attack, where infiltrated network management software led to the compromise of several important corporations and government networks.

Final Thoughts

It’s crucial for organizations to remain vigilant and regularly patch their systems, especially firewall systems, to prevent malicious actors from exploiting vulnerabilities.

As this incident exemplifies, even the industry’s leading cybersecurity providers are not immune to threats – a relevant reminder for all enterprises to keep their cybersecurity measures up-to-date.

Follow-Up Reading

1. A Guide to Zero-Days – Learn more about zero-day vulnerabilities and their potential risks.
2. What’s Next for the Firewall – What does the future hold for firewall technology?

   Find out from the experts at Palo Alto Networks.

3. Detecting a Zero Day Attack – Learn more about detecting and responding to zero-day vulnerabilities.

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