01 Record
CVE-2021-3042
Cortex XDR Agent: Improper Control of User-Controlled File Leads to Local Privilege Escalation
HighPUBLISHEDCNA: palo_alto
CNA base score7.8 CVSS v3.xCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
02 Description
Cortex XDR Agent: Improper Control of User-Controlled File Leads to Local Privilege Escalation
03 Exploitation and scoring
- Exploitation
- Not assessed. CISA has not published an exploitation assessment for this record, and it is not in the KEV catalog. That is an absence of assessment, not a finding of no risk.
- SSVC decision
- Not assessed by CISA
- EPSS probability
- 0.24% probability of exploitation activity in the next 30 days.
- EPSS percentile
- Equal to or higher than the score of 15.9% of scored records. A rank, not a probability.
- NVD base score
- 7.8 (CVSS v3.x), scored by the NVD independently of the CNA.
- NVD CVSS vector
- CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- NVD analysis status
- Modified. NVD last modified this record on 2026-06-17.
- Red Hat severity
- No Red Hat rating. Red Hat rates the CVEs that affect its products.
Exploit-prediction scores from FIRST. Independent scoring and analysis status from the NVD. Vendor severity from Red Hat. Exploitation assessment and catalog membership from CISA.
04 Metadata
- Published
- 2021-07-15 16:45Z5 YR AGO
- Last updated
- 2024-09-17 04:18Z2 YR AGO
- Reserved
- 2021-01-06
- Assigning CNA
- palo_alto
- Record state
- PUBLISHED
- Severity
- High (CVSS 7.8)
- CNA CVSS vector
- CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- Weaknesses
- CWE-427Uncontrolled Search Path ElementBase
- Data version
- 5.1
- Document digest
- 983b4e180ef95e4905258fef7976c9c1b19bac46f4395acdcecbfe21d1f2a9e3
05 Affected products
VendorProductVersionsPlatforms
Palo Alto NetworksCortex XDR Agent6.1.* without content update 181 or later, 7.2.* without content update 181 or later, 7.3.* without content update 181 or laterWindows
06 References
- security.paloaltonetworks.comhttps://security.paloaltonetworks.com/CVE-2021-3042
07 Remediation
This issue is fixed in Cortex XDR agent 6.1, Cortex XDR agent 7.2, Cortex XDR agent 7.3, and all later Cortex XDR agent versions with content update 181 or later content updates. Content updates are required to resolve this issue and are automatically applied for the agent.