CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2022-0026 — Paloaltonetworks Cortex Xdr Agent security vulnerability

High CVSS 7.2

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.

Severity
High
CVSS
7.2 (2.0)
Published
2022-05-11
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
windows/system
Weaknesses
CWE-282

Affected products

  • paloaltonetworks / cortex_xdr_agent / 6.1
  • paloaltonetworks / cortex_xdr_agent / 6.1.4
  • paloaltonetworks / cortex_xdr_agent / 6.1.5
  • paloaltonetworks / cortex_xdr_agent / 6.1.6
  • paloaltonetworks / cortex_xdr_agent / 6.1.7
  • paloaltonetworks / cortex_xdr_agent / 6.1.8

Showing 6 representative product identities from 20 source matches. Confirm exact affected versions with the linked vendor and NVD evidence.

Matched remediation archetype

Privilege escalation and unsafe privilege management

This catalog composition supplies bounded fallback guidance. Explicitly reviewed curated workflows load with the complete record below.

Check exposure

  • Map service accounts, operating-system identities, roles, capabilities, impersonation, set-user transitions, and administrative helper paths.
  • Determine whether untrusted users or lower-privilege processes can reach the affected transition or modify inputs it trusts.
  • Review file, socket, registry, device, job, container, and cloud-role permissions used before and after privilege changes.

Remediate safely

  • Apply the supported fix and redesign privileged operations as a minimal, authenticated, allowlisted interface.
  • Drop privileges before processing untrusted input, verify the drop succeeds, and remove unnecessary roles, capabilities, and write permissions.
  • Validate ownership and permissions at time of use and add explicit lower-to-higher privilege boundary tests.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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