CVE-2020-1989: Global Protect Agent: Incorrect privilege assignment allows local privilege escalation

Severity: high (CVSS 7.8 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.3% 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-266

Description

An incorrect privilege assignment vulnerability when writing application-specific files in the Palo Alto Networks Global Protect Agent for Linux on ARM platform allows a local authenticated user to gain root privileges on the system. This issue affects Palo Alto Networks Global Protect Agent for Linux 5.0 versions before 5.0.8; 5.1 versions before 5.1.1.

Affected products

Palo Alto Networks GlobalProtect App: from 5.0 before 5.0.8; from 5.1 before 5.1.1 — fixed in 5.0.8, 5.1.1
Palo Alto Networks GlobalProtect App: from 5.0 before 5.0.8; from 5.1 before 5.1.1 — fixed in 5.0.8, 5.1.1

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Palo Alto Networks GlobalProtect App 5.0.8, 5.1.1; Palo Alto Networks GlobalProtect App 5.0.8, 5.1.1. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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