Skip to main content
Mallory
Back to vulnerabilities
Medium

Privilege Escalation in Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS CLI

IdentifiersCVE-2026-0272CWE-269

CVE-2026-0272 is a privilege escalation vulnerability in Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS affecting PA-Series firewalls, VM-Series firewalls, and Panorama (virtual and M-Series). The flaw allows an authenticated administrator who already has access to the PAN-OS Command Line Interface (CLI) to perform actions on the device with root privileges. Based on the provided information, the issue is exposed through the CLI management plane and results in elevation from administrative access to full root-level execution on the underlying device. Cloud NGFW and Prisma Access are not affected.

Share:
For your environment

Are you exposed to this one?

Mallory correlates every CVE against your assets, your vendors, and active adversary campaigns. Know which vulnerabilities matter for you, not just which ones are loud.

Start free trial
ANALYST BRIEF

Impact, mitigation & remediation

What it means. What to do now. Patch path, mitigations, and the assume-compromise checklist.

Impact

What an attacker gets, and what they’ve been doing with it.

Successful exploitation allows an authenticated administrator to elevate privileges to root on the affected PAN-OS device. This can enable complete compromise of the management plane of the firewall or Panorama system, including execution of privileged administrative actions beyond the intended authorization boundary. Because the resulting privilege level is root, the attacker could fully control the device functions available to the operating system and security platform.

Mitigation

If you can’t patch tonight, do this now.

Restrict CLI access to a limited group of administrators. Restrict access to the management interface to only trusted internal IP addresses in accordance with Palo Alto Networks best-practice guidance. Use a hardened jump box for firewall management access where possible. These measures reduce exposure by limiting who can reach the vulnerable management interfaces and who can obtain the prerequisite authenticated CLI access.

Remediation

Patch, then assume compromise.

Upgrade PAN-OS to a fixed release. The provided fixed versions for CVE-2026-0272 are: PAN-OS 12.1.4-h7 or 12.1.5 and later in the 12.1 train; 11.2.4-h18, 11.2.7-h16, 11.2.10-h9, or 11.2.11 and later in the 11.2 train; 11.1.4-h34, 11.1.6-h33, 11.1.7-h7, 11.1.10-h27, 11.1.13-h7, or 11.1.14 and later in the 11.1 train; and 10.2.7-h35, 10.2.10-h37, 10.2.13-h22, 10.2.16-h8, or 10.2.18-h5 and later in the 10.2 train. If running an older unsupported PAN-OS branch, upgrade to a supported fixed release.
PUBLIC EXPLOITS

Exploits

No public exploits tracked yet. Mallory keeps watching.

VALID 0 / 0 TOTALView more in app

No public exploit code observed for this vulnerability.

EXPOSURE SURFACE

Affected products & vendors

Products and vendors Mallory has correlated with this vulnerability. Open in Mallory to drill down to specific CPE configurations and version ranges.

VendorProductType
Palo Alto NetworksPa-Serieshardware
Palo Alto NetworksPan-Osoperating_system
Palo Alto NetworksPanoramaapplication
Palo Alto NetworksVm-Serieshardware

Vendor-confirmed product mapping. Mallory continuously reconciles this list against your asset inventory.

ACTIVITY FEED

Recent activity

2 sources tracked across advisories, community write-ups, and news. New activity surfaces here as Mallory finds it.

2 SOURCESView more in app
What this page doesn’t show

The version that knows your environment.

This page is what’s public. Mallory adds the parts that aren’t: which of your assets are affected, which adversaries are exploiting it right now, which detections to deploy, and what to do tonight.
Start free trial
Exposure mapping

Query your assets running an affected version, and investigate the blast radius.

Threat actor evidence

Every observed campaign linking this CVE to a named adversary.

Associated malware

Malware families riding this exploit, with evidence and IOCs.

Detection signatures

YARA, Sigma, Snort, and vendor rules, auto-deployed to your SIEM.

Vendor-by-vendor mapping

Cross-references every affected SKU, including bundled OEM variants.

Social activity1

Community discussion across Reddit, Mastodon, and other social sources.

EXTERNAL REFERENCES
MITRE CVE
cve.org · CVE-2026-0272
NVD
nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-0272
MITRE CWE · CWE-269
cwe.mitre.org
security.paloaltonetworks.com
security.paloaltonetworks.com/CVE-2026-0272