CVE-2022-0028
HIGHCVE-2022-0028 is a high-severity (CVSS 8.6) CWE-406 vulnerability in paloaltonetworks pan-os. It is in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2022-08-22) — treat it as actively exploited and patch now. O3 Security detects and blocks CVE-2022-0028 exploitation at runtime via eBPF exploit-chain detection and L7 egress monitoring, even on unpatched systems.
A PAN-OS URL filtering policy misconfiguration could allow a network-based attacker to conduct reflected and amplified TCP denial-of-service (RDoS) attacks. The DoS attack would appear…
Exploitation Status
Actively exploited in the wild
- Confirmed by CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2022-08-22. Federal agencies were required to remediate by 2022-09-12.
- CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA (KEV catalog and SSVC triage) for CVE-2022-0028.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2022-0028 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 0 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Description
A PAN-OS URL filtering policy misconfiguration could allow a network-based attacker to conduct reflected and amplified TCP denial-of-service (RDoS) attacks. The DoS attack would appear to originate from a Palo Alto Networks PA-Series (hardware), VM-Series (virtual) and CN-Series (container) firewall against an attacker-specified target. To be misused by an external attacker, the firewall configuration must have a URL filtering profile with one or more blocked categories assigned to a source zone that has an external facing interface. This configuration is not typical for URL filtering and, if set, is likely unintended by the administrator. If exploited, this issue would not impact the confidentiality, integrity, or availability of our products. However, the resulting denial-of-service (DoS) attack may help obfuscate the identity of the attacker and implicate the firewall as the source of the attack. We have taken prompt action to address this issue in our PAN-OS software. All software updates for this issue are expected to be released no later than the week of August 15, 2022. This issue does not impact Panorama M-Series or Panorama virtual appliances. This issue has been resolved for all Cloud NGFW and Prisma Access customers and no additional action is required from them.
Affected Products
pan-ospaloaltonetworksResearch use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
Detection & mitigation playbook
Vendor / applianceDetect
Inventory every paloaltonetworks pan-os deployment and check each version against the affected-products list above. Because the exploit targets the running system rather than your application code, also watch for exploitation at the network and runtime layer — O3 flags the exploit behaviour from runtime telemetry and egress traffic even before a vulnerable build is confirmed.
Remediation status
No patch has shipped for CVE-2022-0028 yet — track the paloaltonetworks pan-os advisory for a fixed release and apply the workarounds below in the meantime.
Mitigate without a patch
Cut exposure now: restrict the management/admin interface to trusted networks, segment the device, and apply the vendor's recommended configuration mitigations and any WAF/IPS signature. O3's runtime protection blocks the exploit chain at execution, holding the line on unpatched or end-of-life systems until you can patch.
How O3 protects you
O3 detects and blocks CVE-2022-0028 exploitation at runtime: eBPF exploit-chain detection, plus L7 egress monitoring that catches the post-exploitation callback and severs the attacker's outbound channel.
Tailored to CVE-2022-0028. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2022-0028 being exploited in your environment?
O3's eBPF runtime sensors and L7 egress monitoring detect and block the CVE-2022-0028 exploit chain at execution — protecting unpatched and end-of-life systems until the vendor patch is applied.