CVE intelligence and bounded remediation
CVE-2020-2004 — Paloaltonetworks Globalprotect security vulnerability
Under certain circumstances a user's password may be logged in cleartext in the PanGPS.log diagnostic file when logs are collected for troubleshooting on GlobalProtect app (also known as GlobalProtect Agent) for MacOS and Windows. For this issue to occur all of these conditions must be true: (1) 'Save User Credential' option should be set to 'Yes' in the GlobalProtect Portal's Agent configuration, (2) the GlobalProtect user manually selects a gateway, (3) and the logging level is set to 'Dump' while collecting troubleshooting logs. This issue does not affect GlobalProtect app on other platforms (for example iOS/Android/Linux). This issue affects GlobalProtect app 5.0 versions earlier than 5.0.9, GlobalProtect app 5.1 versions earlier than 5.1.2 on Windows or MacOS. Since becoming aware of the issue, Palo Alto Networks has safely deleted all the known GlobalProtectLogs zip files sent by customers with the credentials. We now filter and remove these credentials from all files sent to Customer Support. The GlobalProtectLogs zip files uploaded to Palo Alto Networks systems were only accessible by authorized personnel with valid Palo Alto Networks credentials. We do not have any eviden…
- Severity
- Medium
- CVSS
- 6.8 (3.1)
- Published
- 2020-05-13
- CISA KEV
- Not currently listed
- Ecosystem
- windows/system
- Weaknesses
- CWE-534, CWE-532
Affected products
- paloaltonetworks / globalprotect
Matched remediation archetype
Information disclosure and sensitive data exposure
This catalog composition supplies bounded fallback guidance. Explicitly reviewed curated workflows load with the complete record below.
Check exposure
- Trace sensitive data through responses, errors, logs, metrics, traces, caches, exports, files, backups, and client bundles.
- Identify affected subjects, tenants, retention windows, access controls, and downstream copies without opening unnecessary sensitive records.
- Review metadata, timing, status, length, and existence signals as well as direct content disclosure.
Remediate safely
- Minimize collection and output, apply field-level authorization and redaction at a centralized boundary, and return generic external errors.
- Remove secrets and sensitive data from logs, artifacts, URLs, caches, and client-side bundles; rotate credentials that may have been exposed.
- Update the affected component and add synthetic-data tests for response, error, observability, and export paths.
Authoritative sources
Complete CVE record and remediation plan
The detailed catalog view below loads this exact record, its source evidence, and the full seven-phase agentic change plan.