CVE-2020-1988: Global Protect Agent: Local privilege escalation due to an unquoted search path vulnerability

Severity: medium (CVSS 6.7 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.4% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2020-04-08 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-428

Description

An unquoted search path vulnerability in the Windows release of Global Protect Agent allows an authenticated local user with file creation privileges on the root of the OS disk (C:\) or to Program Files directory to gain system privileges. This issue affects Palo Alto Networks GlobalProtect Agent 5.0 versions before 5.0.5; 4.1 versions before 4.1.13 on Windows;

Affected products

Palo Alto Networks GlobalProtect App: from 4.1.0 before 4.1.13; from 5.0.0 before 5.0.5 — fixed in 4.1.13, 5.0.5
Palo Alto Networks GlobalProtect App: from 5.0 before 5.0.5; from 4.1 before 4.1.13 — fixed in 5.0.5, 4.1.13

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Palo Alto Networks GlobalProtect App 4.1.13, 5.0.5; Palo Alto Networks GlobalProtect App 5.0.5, 4.1.13. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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