Critical Palo Alto Firewall Bug Allows Remote Reboot Through Packet Injection

A critical denial-of-service vulnerability in Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS allows unauthenticated attackers to remotely reboot firewalls by sending specially crafted packets through the data plane. Security researchers warn that repeated exploitation can push affected devices into maintenance mode, effectively disabling network protection and exposing organizations to secondary attacks. The flaw impacts PA-Series and VM-Series firewalls, as well as Prisma Access deployments across multiple PAN-OS versions, while Cloud NGFW environments remain unaffected.

CVE-2025-4619 is a PAN-OS vulnerability affecting PA-Series and VM-Series firewalls and Prisma Access deployments, allowing unauthenticated attackers to reboot devices by sending malicious data-plane packets. With a CVSS 4.0 score of 6.6 (base 8.7), the flaw has high availability impact, low attack complexity, and requires no privileges or user interaction, posing a serious risk to systems exposed to the internet. The issue can also be exploited even when traffic doesn’t match explicit decrypt or no-decrypt policies, widening the attack surface for affected organizations.

An attacker could exploit this vulnerability using the following tactics, techniques, and procedures:

• TA0011 – Command and Control: Use of application layer protocols to deliver malicious payloads.
• TA0005 – Defense Evasion: Attempts to bypass security measures by impairing defenses through system reboot.
• TA0040 – Impact: Causing a denial-of-service condition, disrupting system availability.
• T1071 – Application Layer Protocol: Exploiting web protocols to send malicious packets.
• T1029 – System Shutdown/Reboot: Forcing a system to shut down or reboot to impair its functionality.
• T1499 – Endpoint Denial of Service: Causing a denial-of-service condition on the targeted endpoint.

Palo Alto Networks has released patched versions to address this vulnerability. Organizations using affected PAN-OS versions should upgrade to the recommended versions or apply the appropriate hotfixes as soon as possible.

• PAN-OS 10.2 users: Upgrade to version 10.2.14 or apply hotfix version 10.2.13-h3 or later.
• PAN-OS 11.1 customers: Upgrade to version 11.1.7 or apply hotfixes 11.1.6-h1 or 11.1.4-h13.
• PAN-OS 11.2 administrators: Upgrade to version 11.2.5 or apply corresponding hotfixes.

There are currently no known workarounds for organizations unable to patch immediately, underscoring the importance of prompt remediation to maintain a strong security posture.

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