Palo Alto Network warns of serious security flaw in firewalls

Recently, Palo Alto Networks warned organisations about a serious security vulnerability that makes enterprise firewalls vulnerable to attack. This vulnerability, known as CVE-2024-3400, allows attackers to remotely execute arbitrary code with the highest administrator privileges on the firewall, without having to be logged in. The severity of this vulnerability is rated as a 10.0 on a scale of 1 to 10.

Active attacks detected

According to reports from Volexity, a reputable security company, active attacks exploiting this vulnerability have been observed since 10 April. In these, attackers installed software to maintain access, steal data and use firewalls as a springboard to penetrate further into the networks of affected organisations. The consequences of these attacks have been severe, with reports of stolen sensitive data such as login credentials and other information from browsers such as Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge.

Urgent advice from Palo Alto Networks

Palo Alto Networks has indicated that hotfix releases are available to close this leak. Organisations are strongly advised to apply these updates as soon as possible. Until the update is implemented, organisations can reduce risks by disabling certain features on the firewall and enabling specific security settings, as indicated by Palo Alto Networks.