CVE-2021-3054: PAN-OS: Unsigned Code Execution During Plugin Installation Race Condition Vulnerability

Severity: medium (CVSS 6.6 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.9% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2021-09-08 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-367

Description

A time-of-check to time-of-use (TOCTOU) race condition vulnerability in the Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS web interface enables an authenticated administrator with permission to upload plugins to execute arbitrary code with root user privileges. This issue impacts: PAN-OS 8.1 versions earlier than PAN-OS 8.1.20; PAN-OS 9.0 versions earlier than PAN-OS 9.0.14; PAN-OS 9.1 versions earlier than PAN-OS 9.1.11; PAN-OS 10.0 versions earlier than PAN-OS 10.0.7; PAN-OS 10.1 versions earlier than PAN-OS 10.1.2. This issue does not affect Prisma Access.

Affected products

Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS: from 8.1.0 before 8.1.20; from 9.0.0 before 9.0.14; from 9.1.0 before 9.1.11; from 10.0.0 before 10.0.7; from 10.1.0 before 10.1.2 — fixed in 8.1.20, 9.0.14, 9.1.11, 10.0.7, 10.1.2
Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS: from 8.1 before 8.1.20; from 9.0 before 9.0.14; from 10.0 before 10.0.7; from 9.1 before 9.1.11; from 10.1 before 10.1.2 — fixed in 8.1.20, 9.0.14, 10.0.7, 9.1.11, 10.1.2

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS 8.1.20, 9.0.14, 9.1.11, 10.0.7; Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS 8.1.20, 9.0.14, 10.0.7, 9.1.11. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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