CVE-2020-2049Cortex XDR Agent: Improper control of loaded DLL leads to local privilege escalation
- 7.8HighCVSS base score
- 0.34%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 71% of all CVEs
- NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
- NonePublic exploitsnone known yet
Description
A local privilege escalation vulnerability exists in Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR Agent on the Windows platform that allows an authenticated local Windows user to execute programs with SYSTEM privileges. This requires the user to have the privilege to create files in the Windows root directory. This issue impacts: All versions of Cortex XDR Agent 7.1 with content update 149 and earlier versions; All versions of Cortex XDR Agent 7.2 with content update 149 and earlier versions.
Timeline
ID reserved
By palo_alto
- 12 months later
· 12 months later
Published
- 4 years later
· 4 years later
Record updated
Changes after publication (a new score, a public exploit, EPSS crossing 1, 10 or 50 %, leaving KEV) are kept since November 2026; earlier ones are not known.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| palo_altoCNA (assigner) | 3.1 | High7.8 | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H |
| NVDNVD · Modified | 3.1 | High7.8 | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 0.34% · top 71% of all CVEs (14 Nov 2026)
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: High 7.8.
Affected products
Palo Alto Networks · Cortex XDR Agent
- unaffected 7.1.* with content update 150
- affected 7.1.* without content update 150
- unaffected 7.2.* with content update 150
- affected 7.2.* without content update 150
Palo Alto Networks · Cortex XDR Agent
- unaffected 6.1.* with latest content
- unaffected 7.0.* with latest content
What to do
Solution: Cortex XDR Agent content update version 150 and all later content update versions resolve this issue for Cortex XDR Agent 7.1 and Cortex XDR Agent 7.2 versions. Cortex XDR Agent 6.1 and Cortex XDR Agent 7.0 are not impacted with the latest content update. Content updates are automatically applied for the agent. A Cortex XDR Agent version upgrade is not required to resolve this issue.
Workaround: This issue is mitigated by preventing local authenticated Windows users from creating files in the Windows root directory such as C:\.
References
References1
- https://security.paloaltonetworks.com/CVE-2020-2049 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- EUVD EUVD-2020-22075 (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisories (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://cveledger.app/cve/CVE-2020-2049)Record last updated .