GlobalProtect App: Improper Certificate Validation Bypass Vulnerability

Affected versions

NVD version ranges (for catalog products). Add the product to your stack with a version and matching uses these.

• paloaltonetworks globalprotect6.0.0 and later · before 6.0.15
• paloaltonetworks globalprotect6.2.0 and later · before 6.2.8
• paloaltonetworks globalprotect6.2.0 and later · up to 6.2.9 inclusive
• paloaltonetworks globalprotect6.3.0 and later · before 6.3.3
• paloaltonetworks globalprotectall versions
• paloaltonetworks globalprotect6.2.8
• paloaltonetworks globalprotect6.3.3

Versions reported by the vendor

Affected version ranges reported by the assigning authority (palo_alto). Independent of NVD's CPE analysis and usually ahead of it.

• Palo Alto Networks GlobalProtect App

  • Allnot affected
  • 6.2.0affected
  • 6.3.0 and later · before 6.3.3-h15affectedfixed in 6.3.3-h15
  • 6.0.0 and later · before 6.0.15affectedfixed in 6.0.15
  • 6.3.0 and later · before 6.3.3-h14affectedfixed in 6.3.3-h14
  • 6.2.0 and later · before 6.2.8-h13affectedfixed in 6.2.8-h13
  • 6.0.0 and later · before 6.0.15affectedfixed in 6.0.15

Other highest-scoring records for the same primary product.

• CVE-2025-4232GlobalProtect: Authenticated Code Injection Through Wildcard on macOS
  34Monitor
• CVE-2021-3057GlobalProtect App: Buffer Overflow Vulnerability When Connecting to Portal or Gateway
  32Monitor
• CVE-2023-0009GlobalProtect App: Local Privilege Escalation (PE) Vulnerability
  31Monitor
• CVE-2022-0017GlobalProtect App: Improper Link Resolution Vulnerability Leads to Local Privilege Escalation
  31Monitor
• CVE-2022-0016GlobalProtect App: Privilege Escalation Vulnerability When Using Connect Before Logon
  31Monitor
• CVE-2020-1989Global Protect Agent: Incorrect privilege assignment allows local privilege escalation
  31Monitor

FIRST EPSS daily score; only changes of 0.01 or more are recorded (step chart).

Root cause

A certificate validation error is silently swallowed instead of terminating the connection. Often, code added for a test environment makes its way into production.

A representative example of this vulnerability class. Not the vendor's source code; it shows the faulty pattern and its fix.

1override fun checkServerTrusted(chain: Array<X509Certificate>, type: String) {2  // Left empty for the test environment3}

1val client = OkHttpClient.Builder()2  .certificatePinner(3    CertificatePinner.Builder()4      .add("api.sirius.example", "sha256/…")5      .build()6  ).build()

Attack context

MITRE CAPEC attack patterns and ATT&CK techniques for this weakness class (CWE). A starting point for detection rules and threat hunting.