Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS Malicious DNS Packet Vulnerability
CVE-2024-3393 is a security vulnerability in Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS, added to CISA KEV on December 30, 2024. Patch priority: Patch this week.
What it is
Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS contains a vulnerability in parsing and logging malicious DNS packets in the DNS Security feature that, when exploited, allows an unauthenticated attacker to remotely reboot the firewall. Repeated attempts to trigger this condition will cause the firewall to enter maintenance mode.
VulnCheck tracked exploitation 3 days before CISA's KEV listing. VulnCheck's broader catalog of in-the-wild exploitation evidence picked this up before it landed on CISA's formal list. Per-CVE fact about this entry; not a population claim about lead time in general.
Who's affected
Affects anyone behind a Palo Alto firewall or using GlobalProtect VPN. The firewall is the network edge; the VPN is how remote workers reach inside the perimeter — exploitation puts an attacker on the internal network without touching a workstation.
What to do
Apply mitigations per vendor instructions or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable.
If you don't have someone in-house to verify the patch deployed across every endpoint — or you're not sure whether you're affected — that's exactly the kind of triage we do. Book a free 20-minute triage call.
Insurance readiness
Your insurer will ask if this is patched.
Unpatched entries on CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities list are exactly what cyber-insurance carrier questionnaires probe for, and knowing which controls they check is how you keep a renewal from stalling.
Get the free carrier questionnaire →Severity
CVSS base score: 7.5 — HIGH
Weakness classification: CWE-754
CISA due date
Federal deadline: January 20, 2025. Federal agencies must complete the required action by this date. For private SMBs the deadline is advisory — but treat it as a strong recommendation, especially if you handle regulated data (HIPAA, GLBA, ABA model rules).
EPSS
EPSS score: 28.6% — higher than 98% of all scored CVEs.
EPSS estimates the probability of exploitation activity in the next 30 days. Every entry on this site is already confirmed exploited, so read it as relative urgency among the things you still have open, not as permission to wait.
Other exploited Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS entries
More CISA KEV entries for Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS. Same product line, same actively-exploited status.
Source
This entry comes from CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, public US-Government data we pull daily. The plain-language framing and the what-to-do guidance above are ours. View the original entry on cisa.gov.