Vulnerability Database

346,508

Total vulnerabilities in the database

CVE-2020-2035 — paloaltonetworks / pan-os

Improper Input Validation

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.

  • Published: Aug 12, 2020
  • Updated: Nov 16, 2025
  • CVE: CVE-2020-2035
  • Severity: Low
  • Exploit:

CVSS v3:

  • Severity: Low
  • Score: 3
  • AV:N/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:L/A:N

CVSS v2:

  • Severity: Low
  • Score: 3.5
  • AV:N/AC:M/Au:S/C:N/I:P/A:N

CWEs:

Frequently Asked Questions

A security vulnerability is a weakness in software, hardware, or configuration that can be exploited to compromise confidentiality, integrity, or availability. Many vulnerabilities are tracked as CVEs (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures), which provide a standardized identifier so teams can coordinate patching, mitigation, and risk assessment across tools and vendors.

CVSS (Common Vulnerability Scoring System) estimates technical severity, but it doesn't automatically equal business risk. Prioritize using context like internet exposure, affected asset criticality, known exploitation (proof-of-concept or in-the-wild), and whether compensating controls exist. A "Medium" CVSS on an exposed, production system can be more urgent than a "Critical" on an isolated, non-production host.

A vulnerability is the underlying weakness. An exploit is the method or code used to take advantage of it. A zero-day is a vulnerability that is unknown to the vendor or has no publicly available fix when attackers begin using it. In practice, risk increases sharply when exploitation becomes reliable or widespread.

Recurring findings usually come from incomplete Asset Discovery, inconsistent patch management, inherited images, and configuration drift. In modern environments, you also need to watch the software supply chain: dependencies, containers, build pipelines, and third-party services can reintroduce the same weakness even after you patch a single host. Unknown or unmanaged assets (often called Shadow IT) are a common reason the same issues resurface.

Use a simple, repeatable triage model: focus first on externally exposed assets, high-value systems (identity, VPN, email, production), vulnerabilities with known exploits, and issues that enable remote code execution or privilege escalation. Then enforce patch SLAs and track progress using consistent metrics so remediation is steady, not reactive.

SynScan combines attack surface monitoring and continuous security auditing to keep your inventory current, flag high-impact vulnerabilities early, and help you turn raw findings into a practical remediation plan.