Detect Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS Authentication Bypass (CVE-2026-0257) in IBM QRadar
Detects exploitation attempts of CVE-2026-0257, an authentication bypass vulnerability in Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS caused by improper reliance on cookies for security decisions (CWE-565). An attacker can manipulate session cookies to bypass authentication controls on PAN-OS management interfaces or VPN endpoints. This vulnerability is confirmed exploited in the wild (CISA KEV).
MITRE ATT&CK
QRadar Detection Query
SELECT sourceip, destinationip, username, url, category, eventcount, starttime, endtime
FROM events
WHERE devicetype = 'Palo Alto PA Series' OR logsourcetypename(devicetype) ILIKE '%palo alto%'
AND LAST 7 DAYS
AND (
LOWER(url) SIMILAR TO '.*(/php/login\.php|/api/\?type=keygen|/global-protect|/ssl-vpn).*'
OR LOWER(category) SIMILAR TO '.*(auth|bypass|cookie|session|invalid).*'
OR LOWER(eventdescription) SIMILAR TO '.*(cookie|bypass|forged|invalid token|auth failure).*'
)
GROUP BY sourceip, destinationip, username, url, category, DATEFORMAT(starttime, 'YYYY-MM-dd HH:mm')
HAVING eventcount > 3
ORDER BY eventcount DESCQRadar AQL query correlating PAN-OS authentication bypass indicators including suspicious URI access patterns, cookie manipulation events, and authentication failure clusters from Palo Alto log sources.
Data Sources
Required Tables
False Positives & Tuning
- Legitimate bulk VPN connections from enterprise users triggering volume thresholds
- Authorized security assessments generating authentication failure events
- API integrations with PAN-OS that periodically re-authenticate generating repeated events
- Network address translation hiding multiple users behind single source IP inflating counts
Other platforms for CVE-2026-0257
Testing Methodology
Validate this detection against 3 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.
- Test 1PAN-OS Cookie Bypass Authentication Simulation
Expected signal: PAN-OS auth logs should show repeated authentication failure events with unusual cookie headers; HTTP access logs should capture the source IP, URI, and malformed cookie values; network monitoring should detect the rapid sequential requests to multiple PAN-OS endpoints.
- Test 2PAN-OS Management Interface Enumeration
Expected signal: Network logs should capture sequential HTTP GET/POST requests to multiple PAN-OS management URIs from single source; firewall logs should record the connection attempts and response codes; IDS/IPS should flag the rapid enumeration pattern.
- Test 3Session Token Forgery Attempt Against PAN-OS
Expected signal: PAN-OS authentication daemon logs should show multiple failed auth attempts with varying PHPSESSID values and non-standard headers (X-PAN-AUTHCHECK); SIEM should capture the pattern of sequential attempts with different cookie values from single source IP.
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