Critical Alert: Palo Alto Networks Discovers New Firewall Vulnerability Targeted by Hackers
Palo Alto Networks, a leading cybersecurity firm in the U.S., has recently issued a critical warning regarding a new vulnerability in its firewall software. Hackers are actively exploiting this flaw to infiltrate unpatched customer networks, raising significant concerns for organizations relying on PAN-OS.
Details of the Vulnerability in PAN-OS
The vulnerability, identified as CVE-2025-0108, was discovered earlier this month by the cybersecurity firm Assetnote. The company was analyzing previous vulnerabilities in Palo Alto Networks firewalls when it uncovered this latest threat.
Urgent Advisory from Palo Alto Networks
Palo Alto Networks released an advisory urging all customers to apply patches immediately to mitigate the risk associated with this vulnerability. The advisory was updated to indicate that the vulnerability is currently being exploited in the wild.
Chaining of Vulnerabilities
Attackers are reportedly combining CVE-2025-0108 with two other previously disclosed vulnerabilities: CVE-2024-9474 and CVE-2025-0111. This exploitation targets unpatched and unsecured PAN-OS web management interfaces. Notably, CVE-2024-9474 has been actively exploited since November 2024.
Understanding the Attack Complexity
While Palo Alto Networks has not detailed how these vulnerabilities are being exploited in tandem, they have indicated that the overall complexity of the attacks is considered “low.”
Current Exploitation Activity
The extent of the exploitation remains unclear. However, threat intelligence firm GreyNoise reported a significant increase in activity, noting that 25 IP addresses have been identified as actively exploiting the PAN-OS vulnerability, an increase from just two IP addresses earlier this month. This uptick suggests that malicious actors, rather than security researchers, are conducting these attacks.
Implications of the Exploit
- Unauthorized Access: The vulnerability allows unauthenticated attackers to execute specific PHP scripts.
- Potential Data Breaches: This could lead to unauthorized access to vulnerable systems.
- Geographic Impact: The highest levels of attack traffic have been observed in the U.S., Germany, and the Netherlands.
Government Response
In response to the growing threat, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has added this latest vulnerability to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, emphasizing the urgency for organizations to address this risk.
As the situation develops, it remains unclear who is behind these attacks or whether sensitive data has been compromised. Palo Alto Networks has not yet responded to inquiries from TechCrunch regarding the incident.