Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
PAN-OS web interface authentication used weak randomness. A logged-in attacker who can observe their own authentication secrets for a long time on the appliance may be able to impersonate another authenticated administrator session. The issue is constrained by required access and high attack complexity, but it affects firewall management-plane trust.
Executive priority
Treat as a scheduled security maintenance item unless management interfaces are widely exposed or administrator access is weakly controlled. Prioritize affected internet-reachable or shared-admin environments first.
Technical view
CVE-2021-3047 is CWE-338 in PAN-OS web interface authentication PRNG. It affects PAN-OS before 8.1.19, 9.0.14, 9.1.10, and 10.0.4; PAN-OS 10.1 is stated as not impacted. CVSS 3.1 is 4.2: AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N.
Likely exposure
Exposure is limited to organizations running affected PAN-OS versions with web interface administrative access available to authenticated users. Internet-facing or broadly reachable management interfaces increase concern, but the source does not state unauthenticated exposure.
Exploitation context
The bundle does not indicate known active exploitation or CISA KEV listing. Exploitation requires authentication, network access, high complexity, and long-duration observation of the attacker's own authentication secrets on the appliance.
Researcher notes
Evidence supports a weak PRNG authentication flaw, not a generic remote takeover. The affected summary lists 10.1.*, but the description states PAN-OS 10.1 is not impacted; rely on vendor advisory details when validating scope.
Mitigation direction
- Upgrade PAN-OS 8.1 to 8.1.19 or later.
- Upgrade PAN-OS 9.0 to 9.0.14 or later.
- Upgrade PAN-OS 9.1 to 9.1.10 or later.
- Upgrade PAN-OS 10.0 to 10.0.4 or later.
- Restrict PAN-OS web interface access to trusted administrative networks.
Validation and detection
- Inventory PAN-OS versions across firewalls and management appliances.
- Confirm whether web interface management is reachable from untrusted networks.
- Review administrator account activity for unexpected sessions or privilege use.
- Verify upgraded systems are on fixed or non-impacted PAN-OS branches.
Public sources used
Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.
Conservative CVE-to-ATT&CK context
These mappings and lookup hints may be relevant to the vulnerability behavior, CWE, affected product, or exposure path. Glexia-inferred context is not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, CWE, or CVE Program mapping.
ATT&CK lookup starting points
Use these exact CWE pages and searches to review the Glexia ATT&CK library from this CVE's weakness and description context.
CWE-338: Exact CWE lookup
Use the exact CWE identifier as the starting point before reviewing related ATT&CK behavior. Open the exact CWE lookup page first, then review the ATT&CK searches from that MITRE weakness context. This is a Glexia lookup hint, not an official ATT&CK mapping.
Open ATT&CK lookupCVE-2021-3047 mapping review
Open the CVE-to-ATT&CK bridge for reviewed, inferred, or future official mappings tied to this CVE.
Open ATT&CK lookup- Severity
- Medium
- CVSS
- 4.2 (3.1)
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N
CNA and ADP enrichment extracted from CVE v5
These fields come from the CVE record and ADP containers, not from Glexia's Take. They preserve time-varying source decisions such as CISA SSVC, KEV status, CVSS metrics, and provider references.
CVSS vector scores
1 official scoreWe collect every scored CVSS vector available in the official CNA and ADP containers. When more than one version is present, the table keeps the source vectors side by side instead of collapsing them into the highest score.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N1.62.5Primary CVE scoreVulnerability scoring details
Base CVSS 3.1 score
4.2MediumVector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- https://security.paloaltonetworks.com/CVE-2021-3047CVE reference · x_refsource_MISC
Products and packages named in the record
CWE details
CWE links open Glexia weakness intelligence pages with official CWE context, developer remediation guidance, and related CVE mappings.
Use of Cryptographically Weak Pseudo-Random Number Generator (PRNG)
Use of Cryptographically Weak Pseudo-Random Number Generator (PRNG) represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.