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CVE-2024-3400 Splunk · SPL

Detect Palo Alto PAN-OS GlobalProtect Command Injection (CVE-2024-3400) in Splunk

CVE-2024-3400 is a critical unauthenticated remote code execution vulnerability (CVSS 10.0) in Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS GlobalProtect gateway. A command injection flaw in the GlobalProtect feature allows an unauthenticated attacker to execute arbitrary OS commands as root by sending specially crafted HTTPS requests. Actively exploited in the wild as part of Operation MidnightEclipse by threat actor UTA0218, attackers have deployed a Python-based backdoor (UPSTYLE) and conducted lateral movement. Affected versions include PAN-OS 10.2.x < 10.2.9-h1, 11.0.x < 11.0.4-h1, and 11.1.x < 11.1.2-h3.

MITRE ATT&CK

Tactic
Initial Access Execution Persistence Lateral Movement

SPL Detection Query

Splunk (SPL)
spl
index=network (sourcetype="pan:traffic" OR sourcetype="pan:system" OR sourcetype="pan:threat" OR sourcetype="pan:log")
| eval is_gp_path=if(match(cs-uri-stem, "(?i)(hipreport\.esp|global-protect|ssl-vpn)"), 1, 0)
| eval has_inject=if(match(message, "(?i)(cmd|/bin/sh|python3?|wget|curl|base64|chmod|/tmp/|mkfifo)"), 1, 0)
| where is_gp_path=1 OR has_inject=1
| eval risk_score=if(is_gp_path=1 AND has_inject=1, 100, if(has_inject=1, 70, 30))
| eval cve="CVE-2024-3400"
| stats count AS event_count, values(src_ip) AS source_ips, values(message) AS messages, max(risk_score) AS max_risk by host, cve
| where max_risk >= 70
| sort -max_risk
critical severity high confidence

Correlates PAN-OS sourcetypes to identify GlobalProtect command injection patterns consistent with CVE-2024-3400. Risk-scores events based on co-occurrence of GlobalProtect URL paths and shell/interpreter keywords.

Data Sources

Palo Alto PAN-OS logs via Splunk Add-on for Palo Alto Networks

Required Sourcetypes

pan:trafficpan:systempan:threatpan:log

False Positives & Tuning

  • PAN-OS health-check scripts executed by monitoring platforms may match command-injection keyword patterns
  • Legitimate red team exercises against the firewall perimeter
  • Log aggregation pipeline encoding artifacts (base64 field values) from unrelated sources forwarded to the same index

Other platforms for CVE-2024-3400


Testing Methodology

Validate this detection against 4 adversary techniques from Atomic Red Team. Each test below lists the behaviour to exercise and the telemetry you should expect to see. Executable commands and cleanup steps are available with Pro.

  1. Test 1CVE-2024-3400 SESSID Command Injection Probe

    Expected signal: PAN-OS traffic log entry with URI /ssl-vpn/hipreport.esp, HTTP 200 or 500 response; system log entry referencing unexpected file path in SESSID parameter

  2. Test 2UPSTYLE Backdoor Artifact Simulation

    Expected signal: File creation event at /opt/panlogs/tmp/device_telemetry/threading/bootstrap.min.css; Python3 process launch from lab shell

  3. Test 3GlobalProtect Path Enumeration with Command Keywords

    Expected signal: Network flow logs showing HTTPS GET requests to /global-protect/* and /ssl-vpn/* paths from the test host; URL parameters containing base64-encoded strings

  4. Test 4Post-Exploitation Outbound Beacon Simulation

    Expected signal: Process telemetry shows python3 making outbound HTTP connections; network telemetry shows repeated periodic connections to the same destination IP from the firewall management process context

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