Vulnerability report

Active exploitation observed Confirmed confidence In CISA KEV

CVE-2026-0257

PAN-OS: GlobalProtect Authentication Bypass Vulnerabilities

Palo Alto Networks / Cloud NGFW · affected before *

Watch CVE-2026-0257 Browse KEV feed
Severity
CVSS 7.8 · High
Confidence
Confirmed
Exploit status
Observed in sensors
EPSS
96.9%
First observed
23 Jun 2026
Last observed
12 Oct 2026

Decision summary

What security teams need to know first

Direct answers before the deeper technical record.

What it is

CVE-2026-0257 is an unauthenticated PAN-OS: GlobalProtect Authentication Bypass Vulnerabilities affecting Palo Alto Networks Cloud NGFW and 2 other products. Authentication bypass vulnerabilities in the GlobalProtect...

Is it exploited?

Yes. Previdian sensors observed exploitation attempts with confirmed confidence. Listed in CISA KEV. Also confirmed by third-party sources.

Who is affected?

Palo Alto Networks / Cloud NGFW affected before *.

What should we do?

Patch immediately, validate internet-facing exposure, and monitor for matching requests.

Overview

PAN-OS: GlobalProtect Authentication Bypass Vulnerabilities

Authentication bypass vulnerabilities in the GlobalProtect portal and gateway of Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS® software allows the attacker to bypass security restrictions and establish an unauthorized VPN connection.

Panorama and Cloud NGFW are not impacted by these issues.

Siemens Affected
RUGGEDCOM APE1808
Before *
Palo Alto Networks Unaffected
Cloud NGFW
All
Palo Alto Networks Affected
PAN-OS
Before 12.1.7, 12.1.4-h6 Before 11.2.12, 11.2.10-h7, 11.2.7-h14, 11.2.4-h17 Before 11.1.15, 11.1.13-h5, 11.1.10-h25, 11.1.7-h6, 11.1.6-h32, 11.1.4-h33 Before 10.2.18-h6, 10.2.16-h7, 10.2.13-h21, 10.2.10-h36, 10.2.7-h34
Palo Alto Networks Affected
Prisma Access
Before 10.2.10-h36 Before 11.2.7-h13
View vendor advisory (opens in new tab)
Published
13 May 2026
Exploitation Reported
01 Jun 2026
Attack vector
Remote
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None

Tags

edge cisa nuclei_scanner nessus_scanner qilin ransomware malware

CVE References

Exploitation evidence

Why Previdian marks this CVE as exploited

Third-party attestation and first-party sensor observation are shown separately so teams can judge the evidence chain.

Exploited in the wild

CVE

Recorded 01 Jun 2026

A trusted third party reported exploitation.

Active exploitation observed

Previdian sensor

First observed 23 Jun 2026

Previdian first observed exploitation attempts targeting this vulnerability in our honeypot sensors.

Used in qilin ransomware malware

CVE

Recorded 19 Sep 2026

Malware families have been linked to exploitation of this CVE.

Proof of concept available

Nuclei Templates

Recorded 12 Jun 2026

Public scanner or PoC coverage increases practical exploitability.

Known exploited vulnerability sources

Per-source evidence links for KEV attestations are available through the Previdian Pro API.

Learn about Pro API access
Source Added
The Shadowserver First 2026-05-30 07:34 UTC
BleepingComputer 2026-05-30 18:02 UTC
CVE 2026-06-01 10:28 UTC
CISA 2026-06-02 14:00 UTC
The Hacker News 2026-06-02 14:21 UTC
All CISA Advisories 2026-06-02 14:21 UTC
Palo Alto Unit42 2026-06-05 14:20 UTC
Previdian Sensors 2026-09-19 12:57 UTC

Operational indicators for this CVE are listed under Detection.

Sensor telemetry

First-party evidence of exploitation activity

Previdian sensors recorded exploitation attempts targeting this vulnerability. The cards and chart show volume, unique attackers, and daily activity.

617

Attempts observed

165

Unique attacker IPs

18

Attacker countries

AU · BG · CA · CH · CN · DE · ES · GB · IE · IR · JP · KR · NL · RO · RU · SG · TW · US

25

Sensors observed

CVE-2026-0257 exploitation attempts over the last 91 days

Daily events observed by Previdian sensors

Updated 12 Oct 2026

2
0
2
4
4
0
0
4
1
2
1
2
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
2
1
1
33
1
32
0
2
1
0
0
1
0
1
2
0
0
0
0
1
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
0
1
1
1
0
0
0
0
1
1
2
1
0
2
0
0
4
2
0
0
0
2
6
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3
1
0
6
88
346
33
3
2
2
1
14 Jul 2 Aug 21 Aug 9 Sep 12 Oct

First observed 23 Jun 2026 · Last observed 12 Oct 2026

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Detection

Operational artifacts and observed signals

Make the evidence actionable in scanner, SOC, and edge-control workflows.

Observed signals

Request targets
User-Agents
Callback hosts
1
7
0

Request targets and User-Agents available in Pro. Callback host details available in Enterprise.

Virtual patch status

No Previdian virtual patch is currently available. Future rules ship for ModSecurity, Cloudflare, and AWS WAF.

Learn about virtual patches →

Indicators of Compromise (IoCs)

Operational indicators linked to exploitation of this CVE. IoCs age over time, especially IP addresses.

Export
Type Indicator First Seen Last Seen Age Source
IP Stale 23.128.228.6 2026-06-05 17:24 UTC 2026-06-05 17:24 UTC 4 months ago Source
IP Stale 104.207.144.154 2026-06-05 17:24 UTC 2026-06-05 17:24 UTC 4 months ago Source
IP Stale 146.19.216.119 2026-06-05 17:24 UTC 2026-06-05 17:24 UTC 4 months ago Source
IP Stale 146.19.216.120 2026-06-05 17:24 UTC 2026-06-05 17:24 UTC 4 months ago Source
IP Stale 146.19.216.125 2026-06-05 17:24 UTC 2026-06-05 17:24 UTC 4 months ago Source
IP Stale 179.43.172.213 2026-06-05 17:24 UTC 2026-06-05 17:24 UTC 4 months ago Source
IP Stale 185.195.232.139 2026-06-05 17:24 UTC 2026-06-05 17:24 UTC 4 months ago Source
IP Stale 198.12.106.60 2026-06-05 17:24 UTC 2026-06-05 17:24 UTC 4 months ago Source
IP Stale 202.144.192.47 2026-06-05 17:24 UTC 2026-06-05 17:24 UTC 4 months ago Source

Scanner Artifacts

Scanner and exploit-framework references linked to this CVE.

Scanner Reference Detected
Nuclei https://github.com/projectdiscovery/nuclei-templates/blob/main/javascript/cves/2026/CVE-2026-0257.yaml 03 Jun 2026
Nessus https://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/314450 14 May 2026

Risk and context

Severity, weaknesses, and research context

CVSS v4.0

7.8 High

Potential damage if exploited. Separate from whether attackers are using it.

CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:L/VI:N/VA:N/SC:H/SI:H/SA:N/E:A/AU:N/R:A/V:D/RE:M/U:Red

EPSS

96.9%

Estimated chance of exploitation in the next 30 days. Previdian's warning comes from evidence, not this score.

Weaknesses

Reliance on Cookies without Validation and Integrity Checking CWE-565

Recent mention · The Hacker News

CyberXero Uses Claude Code in Campaign That Stole Over 628,000 Ukrainian Records

Ravie LakshmananOct 12, 2026Web Security / Cybercrime Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed details of a two-pronged artificial intelligence (AI)-augmented initial access campaign targeting WordPress sites, e-commerce platforms, and critical infrastructure entities in...

Read full advisory

All CVSS Scores

CVSS v4.0 7.8 High

CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:L/VI:N/VA:N/SC:H/SI:H/SA:N/E:A/AU:N/R:A/V:D/RE:M/U:Red

CVSS v3.1 9.1 Critical

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N

All Mentions

Recent mention · The Hacker News

CyberXero Uses Claude Code in Campaign That Stole Over 628,000 Ukrainian Records

The Hacker News · 12 Oct 2026

Ravie LakshmananOct 12, 2026Web Security / Cybercrime Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed details of a two-pronged artificial intelligence (AI)-augmented initial access campaign targeting WordPress sites, e-commerce platforms, and critical infrastructure entities in Ukraine. The activity, which brings together commodity offensive tools like Cobalt Strike with an AI orchestration layer powered by Anthropic's Claude Code, has been attributed to a Russian-speaking, financially motivated initial access broker codenamed CyberXero. The threat actor is assessed to be active since at least...

Recent mention · SOCRadar

Operation Master: Deconstructing a Multi-Tiered Intrusion and Monetization Pipeline

SOCRadar · 24 Sep 2026

Operation Master: Deconstructing a Multi-Tiered Intrusion and Monetization Pipeline SOCRadar Threat Research Unit (STRU) has uncovered an end-to-end cybercrime operation dubbed Operation Master, in which a threat actor c

Recent mention · DarkWebInformer

Trusting a Cookie It Never Issued: The PAN-OS GlobalProtect Authentication Bypass (CVE-2026-0257)

DarkWebInformer · 21 Jul 2026

CVE-2026-0257 is an authentication bypass in the GlobalProtect portal and gateway components of Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS software.

Recent mention · The Hacker News

Qilin Ransomware Attackers Exploit PAN-OS Authentication Bypass for Initial Access

The Hacker News · 21 Jul 2026

Threat actors have been observed exploiting a now-patched high-severity Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS vulnerability as an entry point to deploy Qilin (aka Agenda) ransomware on victim environments. Arctic Wolf Labs said it investigated multiple intrusions in June 2026 that began with the exploitation of CVE-2026-0257 (CVSS score: 7.8), an authentication bypass flaw affecting the portal and gateway

Recent mention · Daily CyberSecurity

Qilin Ransomware Deployed via Palo Alto GlobalProtect Flaw CVE-2026-0257

Daily CyberSecurity · 21 Jul 2026

During June 2026, Arctic Wolf Labs traced several ransomware intrusions to one entry point. Attackers exploited a Palo The post Qilin Ransomware Deployed via Palo Alto GlobalProtect Flaw CVE-2026-0257 appeared first on Daily CyberSecurity.

Recent mention · The Hacker News

Palo Alto Warns of Active Exploitation of PAN-OS GlobalProtect VPN Flaw

The Hacker News · 15 Jun 2026

Palo Alto Networks has revealed that it has observed "active exploitation" of a recently disclosed PAN-OS vulnerability by an unknown threat actor to obtain unauthorized access to GlobalProtect portals. The vulnerability in question is CVE-2026-0257 (CVSS score: 7.8), an authentication bypass flaw affecting the portal and gateway components of PAN-OS software that could be exploited by bad

Recent mention · Palo Alto Unit42

Threat Brief: Active Exploitation of PAN-OS CVE-2026-0257

Palo Alto Unit42 · 05 Jun 2026

We include indicators of activity and mitigations for PAN-OS vulnerability CVE-2026-0257. The post Threat Brief: Active Exploitation of PAN-OS CVE-2026-0257 appeared first on Unit 42.

Recent mention · BleepingComputer

Palo Alto GlobalProtect VPN auth bypass flaw now exploited in attacks

BleepingComputer · 30 May 2026

Palo Alto Networks is warning that hackers are now exploiting a PAN-OS GlobalProtect authentication bypass flaw, tracked as CVE-2026-0257, in attacks attempting to breach corporate networks. [...]

Recent mention · The Hacker News

PAN-OS GlobalProtect Authentication Bypass (CVE-2026-0257) Under Active Exploitation

The Hacker News · 30 May 2026

Palo Alto Networks has warned that a recently disclosed medium-severity security flaw impacting PAN-OS and Prisma Access has come under active exploitation in the wild. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2026-0257 (CVSS score: 7.8), refers to a case of authentication bypass that could be exploited by bad actors to set up VPN connections. "Authentication bypass vulnerabilities in the

Recent mention · Palo Alto Networks Security Advisories

CVE-2026-0257 PAN-OS: GlobalProtect Authentication Bypass Vulnerabilities (Severity: HIGH)

Palo Alto Networks Security Advisories · 29 May 2026

Recent mention · All CISA Advisories

CISA Adds One Known Exploited Vulnerability to Catalog

All CISA Advisories · 29 May 2026

CISA has added one new vulnerability to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) Catalog, based on evidence of active exploitation. CVE-2026-0257 Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS Authentication Bypass Vulnerability This type of vulnerability is a frequent attack vectors for malicious cyber actors and poses significant risks to the federal enterprise. Binding Operational Directive (BOD) 22-01: Reducing the Significant Risk of Known Exploited Vulnerabilities established the KEV Catalog as a living list of known Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs) that carry significant risk to the federal...

Potential Proof of Concepts

These PoCs are unverified and could contain malware. Use at your own risk.

Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS - Authentication Bypass

nuclei · Created Unknown

Timeline

From disclosure to observed exploitation

  1. 12:57 UTC

    Used in qilin ransomware malware

    Exploit observed in malware

  2. 23:15 UTC

    Observed by Previdian sensors

    Evidence-backed exploitation signal

  3. 14:21 UTC

    Public PoC available

    Public proof-of-concept code published

  4. 17:24 UTC

    Indicators of compromise added (184)

    Indicators of compromise recorded

  5. 14:20 UTC

    KEV confirmed by Palo Alto Unit42

    Exploitation attested by an external source

  6. 04:30 UTC

    Nuclei template available

    Scanner coverage available

  7. 14:21 UTC

    KEV confirmed by All CISA Advisories

    Exploitation attested by an external source

  8. 14:21 UTC

    KEV confirmed by The Hacker News

    Exploitation attested by an external source

  9. 14:00 UTC

    Added to CISA KEV

    Listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

  10. 10:28 UTC

    KEV confirmed by CVE

    Exploitation attested by an external source

  11. 18:02 UTC

    KEV confirmed by BleepingComputer

    Exploitation attested by an external source

  12. 07:34 UTC

    Added to Previdian KEV Feed

    High-confidence, third-party attested exploitation

  13. 03:47 UTC

    Nessus plugin available

    Scanner coverage available

  14. 18:15 UTC

    CVE published

    Vulnerability disclosed publicly

  15. 20:44 UTC

    CVE ID reserved

    Identifier reserved by the CNA

Pro API

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Confidence, exploit status, sensor telemetry, PoCs, scanner integrations, mentions, and tags are available programmatically for VM, SOC, and CTI workflows.

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  • Evidence confidence and provenance
  • First-party sensor telemetry
  • PoC and scanner references
  • Affected versions and enrichment
  • Automation-ready JSON delivery

GET /api/v2/pro/kevs/CVE-2026-0257

Free JSON includes basic KEV fields 
{
  "cve_id": "CVE-2026-0257",
  "confidence": "Confirmed",
  "cvss_score": 7.8,
  "cvss_estimated": false,
  "epss_score": 0.96895,
  "exploit_status": {
    "exploited_in_the_wild": true,
    "active_exploitation_observed": true
  },
  "sensor_telemetry": { "attempts": 617, "sensors": 25 }
}