CVE-2022-0025Cortex XDR Agent: An Uncontrolled Search Path Element Leads to Local Privilege Escalation (PE) Vulnerability
- 6.7MediumCVSS base score
- 0.24%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 84% of all CVEs
- NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
- NonePublic exploitsnone known yet
Description
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 the Cortex XDR agent when upgrading to Cortex XDR agent 7.7.0 on Windows; Cortex XDR agent 7.7.0 without content update 500 or a later version on Windows. This issue does not impact other platforms or other versions of the Cortex XDR agent.
Timeline
ID reserved
By palo_alto
- 4 months later
· 4 months later
Published
- 2 years later
· 2 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 | Medium6.7 | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H |
| NVDNVD · Modified | 3.1 | Medium6.7 | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 0.24% · top 84% of all CVEs (14 Nov 2026)
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: Medium 6.7.
Affected products
Palo Alto Networks · Cortex XDR Agent
- affected 7.7 – < 7.7.1.62043 without CU-500
Palo Alto Networks · Cortex XDR Agent
- unaffected 7.7.* with CU-500
- unaffected 7.6 all
- unaffected 7.5 CE all
- unaffected 7.4 all
- unaffected 7.5 all
- unaffected 6.1 all
- unaffected 5.0 all
What to do
Solution: This issue is fixed in Cortex XDR agent 7.7.0 with content update 500, Cortex XDR agent 7.7.1 build 7.7.1.62043, and all later Cortex XDR agent versions. Ensure that Cortex XDR agent is upgraded to Cortex XDR agent 7.7.1.62043 or a later build when upgrading Cortex XDR agent to Cortex XDR agent 7.7 to prevent exposure to this vulnerability during the upgrade process.
Workaround: There are no known workarounds for this issue.
Exploitation: Palo Alto Networks is not aware of any malicious exploitation of this issue.
References
References1
- https://security.paloaltonetworks.com/CVE-2022-0025 (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-2022-15246 (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-2022-0025)Record last updated .