Palo Alto Networks Patches Authentication Bypass Exploit in PAN
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Palo Alto PAN-OS Buffer Overflow Lets Attackers Execute Arbitrary Code as Root
Palo Alto Networks fixed CVE-2026-0310, a CVSS 9.2 unauthenticated PAN-OS buffer overflow enabling root code execution on PA-Series firewalls.
Palo Alto Networks published an advisory on September 9, 2026 for CVE-2026-0310, a CWE-787 out-of-bounds write in PAN-OS XML processing with a CVSS v4.0 base score of 9.2, affecting the management and dataplane interfaces. Unauthenticated attackers could execute arbitrary code as root on PA-Series hardware firewalls, while VM-Series faces denial-of-service impact and Prisma Access and Cloud NGFW have reduced, authenticated exposure. Affected releases include PAN-OS 10.2, 11.1, 11.2, 12.1, and 12.2 before fixed maintenance releases such as 12.2.3, 12.1.4-h10, 11.2.13-h2, 11.1.16-h2, and 10.2.18-h10; no workaround is available. Palo Alto is not aware of malicious exploitation but classifies remediation urgency as highest.
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CISA Adds Palo Alto Networks and SonicWall Flaws to Exploited Vulnerabilities List
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Threat Brief: Maze Ransomware
Unit 42 issued a threat brief on Maze ransomware, noting an uptick across industries and exploitation of Pulse VPN and IE flaws for initial access.
Palo Alto Networks detected an uptick in Maze ransomware samples across finance, healthcare, government, and other sectors. Maze, a variant of ChaCha ransomware first seen in May 2019, is distributed via weaponized Word/Excel attachments and the Spelevo exploit kit leveraging CVE-2018-15982 and CVE-2018-4878, and has used CVE-2019-11510 (Pulse VPN) and CVE-2018-8174 (Internet Explorer). Operators establish a foothold, escalate privileges, move laterally, and exfiltrate files before encryption for extortion leverage.
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Threat Brief: Ongoing Russia and Ukraine Cyber Activity
Ukrainian government sites were defaced via OctoberCMS CVE-2021-32648 while Microsoft-attributed actor DEV-0586 deployed destructive WhisperGate malware.
Unit 42 tracks January 2022 attacks against Ukrainian government websites that were defaced or made inaccessible, which Ukraine attributed to Russia. Attackers exploited CVE-2021-32648, an account takeover flaw in OctoberCMS prior to 1.0.472, by submitting a boolean true as the password reset code to bypass validation. Separately, WhisperGate malware, attributed by Microsoft to DEV-0586, disabled Windows Defender and corrupted files across multiple Ukrainian organizations, using a ransomware-appearing first stage and an HTTPS-beaconing second stage with LOLBINs and anti-analysis techniques.
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Threat Brief: OWASSRF Vulnerability Exploitation
Unit 42 details active exploitation of Exchange SSRF flaws CVE-2022-41080/CVE-2022-41082 via the OWASSRF method, deploying the SilverArrow PowerShell backdoor.
Unit 42 documents OWASSRF, an exploit chain combining CVE-2022-41080 and CVE-2022-41082 to achieve remote code execution on Microsoft Exchange via Outlook Web Access, bypassing Microsoft's ProxyNotShell mitigations. Active exploitation was observed in late November and early December 2022, affecting at least eight organizations. Attackers authenticated to Exchange, then executed a PowerShell backdoor tracked as SilverArrow to create admin accounts, install AnyDesk, tunnel RDP via PuTTY Link, and dump LSASS memory for credential theft. Exploitation is isolated rather than mass-scale because authentication is required.
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Threat Assessment: Ryuk Ransomware
Unit 42 assesses Ryuk ransomware amid a CISA/FBI/HHS alert on threats to U.S. healthcare, including the UHS attack that disrupted hospital operations.
A joint CISA, FBI, and HHS alert on October 28, 2020 warned of an imminent threat to U.S. healthcare from operators deploying Trickbot and Ryuk ransomware. Universal Health Services reported a Ryuk attack that disrupted all U.S. UHS sites for weeks, with similar incidents at hospitals in Oregon and New York. Ryuk typically arrives after Trickbot or BazaLoader infections delivered via malicious email, and operators enumerate networks with PowerShell and WMI before encryption. The Trickbot Anchor_DNS module performs DNS tunneling for C2, using connectivity checks to benign domains like ipinfo.io and checkip.amazonaws.com.
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