PAN-OS: Panorama context switch session cookie disclosure

A cleartext transmission of sensitive information vulnerability in Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS Panorama that discloses an authenticated PAN-OS administrator’s PAN-OS session cookie. When an administrator issues a context switch request into a managed firewall with an affected PAN-OS Panorama version, their PAN-OS session cookie is transmitted over cleartext to the firewall. An attacker with the ability to intercept this network traffic between the firewall and Panorama can access the administrator’s account and further manipulate devices managed by Panorama.

Work around:
One possible vulnerability mitigation is to shorten the length of administrator session idle timeout. This reduces the likelihood the exposed administrator’s session cookie is valid at time of attack.