VULNERABILITY INTELLIGENCE

CVE-2021-3042

CVSS score7.8 HIGH
EPSS probability0.25%
CISA KEVNot currently listed
Published2021-07-15
Last modified2026-06-17
CVSS vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Description

A local privilege escalation (PE) vulnerability exists in the Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR agent on Windows platforms that enables an authenticated local Windows user to execute programs with SYSTEM privileges. Exploiting this vulnerability requires the user to have file creation privilege in the Windows root directory (such as C:\). This issue impacts: All versions of Cortex XDR agent 6.1 without content update 181 or a later version; All versions of Cortex XDR agent 7.2 without content update 181 or a later version; All versions of Cortex XDR agent 7.3 without content update 181 or a later version. Cortex XDR agent 5.0 versions are not impacted by this issue. Content updates are required to resolve this issue and are automatically applied for the agent.

Weakness classification

  • psirt@paloaltonetworks.com: CWE-427
  • nvd@nist.gov: CWE-427

Primary references