GlobalProtect agent configuration saves user credentials
At a glance
Base severity
Area
Platform
Evidence level
Benchmark reference
Reads the export, not the device
ConfigProof reads a configuration export. This control is evaluated against the objects in that file, and it reports what the file says. It does not connect to the device and sees no traffic, so a finding here describes the configuration, not what the firewall is doing right now.
Why it matters
The configuration tells the agent to store the password on the endpoint. Every device that receives this configuration and whose user signs in is then holding a corporate credential at rest, and it is usually the same credential that opens mail and the directory, not only the VPN. This file shows the instruction, not how many endpoints have already acted on it.
How to fix it
Web interface
The steps below are written for the web interface. A finding raised on your own export carries the same steps with your object names filled in.
- Set Save User Credentials to No, or to Save Username Only, on the agent configuration. An agent configuration that leaves the setting out saves the password, the PAN-OS default.
- Keep or add a second factor (Components that Require Dynamic Passwords), so a captured password alone does not connect.
- Consider certificate based authentication for the population that complains about retyping.
Command line
PAN-OS CLI, standalone firewall, vsys1
set vsys vsys1 global-protect global-protect-portal <object-name> client-config configs <agent-config> save-user-credentials 0An example. Values in angle brackets are yours to supply; a finding on your own export fills in the names it read. Nothing here commits. Review the candidate configuration, then commit it yourself.
Read it back
show vsys vsys1 global-protect global-protect-portal <object-name>Values to fill in2
- <object-name>
- The object's name, as it appears on your firewall
- <agent-config>
- The agent configuration to change
Before you type it1
- Users will be asked to sign in again once saved credentials are turned off.
Also checked on Prisma Access agent and tunnel profiles. There, change the same setting in the Prisma Access profile; these commands are for a firewall.
How to confirm the fix
- Confirm the agent configuration reports Save User Credentials as No or Save Username Only.
- Confirm a client that had it enabled is prompted after the next portal refresh.
Limits
- Whether endpoints have already cached credentials under the previous setting is not visible in the configuration.
- An assessment read by an analyzer older than the one that reads the PAN-OS codes for this setting is not judged here; read it again with the current analyzer.
- On a Strata Cloud Manager tenant, an agent profile that does not state the setting is not judged: the default the tenant applies is not documented for the API.
Compliance references
No benchmark recommendation is mapped to this control in this version.
More in Remote access VPN
- PAN-SEC-068GlobalProtect gateway excludes the default route from the tunnel
- PAN-SEC-069GlobalProtect gateway is configured without a client certificate requirement
- PAN-SEC-111GlobalProtect presents a certificate that is expired, expiring or self-signed
- PAN-SEC-112GlobalProtect accepts a TLS version below 1.2
- PAN-SEC-168Two agent tunnel profiles draw from the same or overlapping addresses
- PAN-SEC-169An agent tunnel profile matches any user beside other profiles
See it on your own firewall
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