CVE-2020-2035

PAN-OS: URL filtering policy is not enforced on TLS handshakes for decrypted HTTPS sessions

LOW
3
CVSS Score
Published: August 12, 2020 at 05:05 PM UTC
Updated: June 17, 2026 at 03:11 AM UTC
1 product affected across 1 vendorPAN-OS

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Severity
LOW3
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.8%

Description

When SSL/TLS Forward Proxy Decryption mode has been configured to decrypt the web transactions, the PAN-OS URL filtering feature inspects the HTTP Host and URL path headers for policy enforcement on the decrypted HTTPS web transactions but does not consider Server Name Indication (SNI) field within the TLS Client Hello handshake. This allows a compromised host in a protected network to evade any security policy that uses URL filtering on a firewall configured with SSL Decryption in the Forward Proxy mode. A malicious actor can then use this technique to evade detection of communication on the TLS handshake phase between a compromised host and a remote malicious server. This technique does not increase the risk of a host being compromised in the network. It does not impact the confidentiality or availability of a firewall. This is considered to have a low impact on the integrity of the firewall because the firewall fails to enforce a policy on certain traffic that should have been blocked. This issue does not impact the URL filtering policy enforcement on clear text or encrypted web transactions. This technique can be used only after a malicious actor has compromised a host in the protected network and the TLS/SSL Decryption feature is enabled for the traffic that the attacker controls. Palo Alto Networks is not aware of any malware that uses this technique to exfiltrate data. This issue is applicable to all current versions of PAN-OS. This issue does not impact Panorama or WF-500 appliances.

Affected

Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.

10.0.*10.1.*8.1.*9.0.*9.1.*

Remediation

No guide yet

No remediation guidance has been written for this CVE yet. What the record does show:

References (2)

CVSS

3LOWpalo_alto
Attack Vector
NETWORK
Complexity
HIGH
Privileges
HIGH
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
CHANGED
Confidentiality
NONE
Integrity
LOW
Availability
NONE
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusMODIFIED
CWE
CWE-20NVD-CWE-noinfo

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