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Security researchers and vendors have confirmed active exploitation of a PAN-OS authentication‑bypass vulnerability (CVE-2026-0257) that enables attackers to establish unauthorized GlobalProtect VPN sessions.
Palo Alto Networks initially disclosed the flaw on May 13 and assigned patches and mitigations; Rapid7 observed exploitation beginning May 17 with a second wave May 21.
The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency added the defect to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on May 29, directing federal agencies to remediate by June 1.
The issue can be abused by forging an authentication override cookie when certain certificate configurations are reused, a configuration present in some GlobalProtect portal/gateway deployments.
NVD/CVSS ratings were escalated after in‑the‑wild activity, with public scoring reported up to 9.1.
Palo Alto has issued updated advisories and patches for multiple PAN‑OS and Prisma Access releases; vendors and researchers urge immediate patching, disabling authentication override cookies where feasible, and review of VPN logs and exposed devices.
While many observed intrusions did not show lateral movement, the vulnerability’s ability to grant legitimate‑looking VPN access makes detection and post‑compromise containment challenging.








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