Cortex XDR Agent: Cleartext Exposure of Agent Admin Password
An information exposure vulnerability in the Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR agent on Windows devices allows a local system administrator to disclose the admin password for the agent in cleartext, which bad actors can then use to execute privileged cytool commands that disable or uninstall the agent.
Cortex XDR Agent: Cleartext Exposure of Agent Admin Password
An information exposure vulnerability in the Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR agent on Windows devices allows a local system administrator to disclose the admin password for the agent in cleartext, which bad actors can then use to execute privileged cytool commands that disable or uninstall the agent.
Description: CWE-319 Cleartext Transmission of Sensitive Information
Metrics
Version
Base score
Base severity
Vector
3.1
6.0
MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:H
Version:3.1
Base score:6.0
Base severity: MEDIUM
Vector:
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:H
Metrics Other Info
Impacts
CAPEC ID
Description
Solutions
This issue is fixed in Cortex XDR agent 7.5.101-CE and all later supported Cortex XDR agent versions. (Cortex XDR agent 5.0 is not impacted.)
After you upgrade to a fixed version of the Cortex XDR agent, you must change the agent admin password in case it was already disclosed to users.
Configurations
Workarounds
There are no known workarounds for this issue.
Exploits
Credits
finder
Palo Alto Networks thanks Robert McCallum (M42D) for discovering and reporting this issue.
An information exposure vulnerability in the Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR agent on Windows devices allows a local system administrator to disclose the admin password for the agent in cleartext, which bad actors can then use to execute privileged cytool commands that disable or uninstall the agent.