CVE-2021-3042

HIGH

Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR <6.1-7.2 - Privilege Escalation

Title source: llm
STIX 2.1

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.

References (1)

Core 1
Core References
Vendor Advisory x_refsource_misc
https://security.paloaltonetworks.com/CVE-2021-3042

Scores

CVSS v3 7.8
EPSS 0.0003
EPSS Percentile 10.6%
Attack Vector LOCAL
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Details

CWE
CWE-427
Status published
Products (3)
paloaltonetworks/cortex_xdr_agent 6.1
paloaltonetworks/cortex_xdr_agent 7.2 (3 CPE variants)
paloaltonetworks/cortex_xdr_agent 7.3
Published Jul 15, 2021
Tracked Since Feb 18, 2026