About Remote Code Execution - PAN-OS (CVE-2026-0300) vulnerability. PAN-OS is an operating system for Palo Alto Networks firewalls and security platforms. User-ID™ Authentication Portal (also known as Captive Portal) is a non-default PAN-OS feature used to map IP addresses to usernames. By exploiting a buffer overflow vulnerability (CWE-787), an unauthenticated remote attacker can send specially crafted packets to a device with the Authentication Portal enabled, achieving arbitrary code execution with root privileges on the affected device. No authentication or user interaction is required. If the vulnerability is successfully exploited, the attacker gains full control over network traffic: they can intercept, modify, or block connections, access sensitive data, bypass security policies, hide traces of compromise, install backdoors, and use the device as a foothold for attacks on internal infrastructure.

⚙️ The vendor security advisory was published on May 6. PA-Series and VM-Series firewalls are affected. Prisma Access, Cloud NGFW, and Panorama appliances are not impacted by this vulnerability. Security updates for affected devices became available on May 13. As a workaround, the vendor recommended restricting User-ID™ Authentication Portal access to only trusted internal zones or disabling the User-ID™ Authentication Portal entirely if it is not required.

👾 On the same day, May 6, researchers from Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 published a report on active exploitation of the vulnerability in the wild. Post-exploitation activity includes deployment of publicly available tunneling tools (EarthWorm, ReverseSocks5), Active Directory enumeration using credentials likely obtained from the firewall, and systematic destruction of logs and other evidence of compromise. On the same day, the vulnerability was added to the CISA KEV catalog.

🛠 A public exploit was also published on GitHub on May 6.

🌐 PAN-OS is among the most widely deployed enterprise firewall operating systems in the world. As of June 5, Shodan identifies approximately 135,755 internet-facing PAN-OS instances, representing a significant attack surface.