CVE-2021-3042
highpriority · track · 29EPSS 0.002 · 16 %ileEUUSEPSS · scored 2026-10-27
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.
cvss
Technical severity, 0–10. One row per scoring source.
base score 0–10 · higher = more severe · hover a vector to decode
weaknesses
The CWE weakness classes this flaw belongs to.
affected products (6)
Products and version ranges known to be affected.
- paloaltonetworks cortex xdr agent= 6.1nvdUScpe:2.3:a:paloaltonetworks:cortex_xdr_agent:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
- paloaltonetworks cortex xdr agent= 7.2nvdUScpe:2.3:a:paloaltonetworks:cortex_xdr_agent:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
- paloaltonetworks cortex xdr agent= 7.3nvdUScpe:2.3:a:paloaltonetworks:cortex_xdr_agent:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
also known as (3)
Other names and identifiers for this entity.
sources
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references (5)
External citations — patches, advisories, analysis.
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