Incorrect Permission Assignment for Critical Resource in Elastic Agent Leading to Local Privilege Escalation to SYSTEM

{
  "id": "565a4f09a4238eef2664f7f993de1744e258d55408c2090791295abae2d95cc2",
  "url": "https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-78604",
  "method": "structured",
  "payload": {
    "kind": "advisory",
    "title": "Incorrect Permission Assignment for Critical Resource in Elastic Agent Leading to Local Privilege Escalation to SYSTEM",
    "summary": "Incorrect Permission Assignment for Critical Resource (CWE-732) in Elastic Agent can lead to local privilege escalation via Replace Binaries (CAPEC-642). On Windows systems where Elastic Agent is installed in unprivileged mode, resources used by the agent service are created with access controls broader than required. A local user could take advantage of this to cause the service to execute code of their choosing, ultimately obtaining SYSTEM-level privileges on the host.",
    "evidence": "osv:CVE-2026-78604",
    "products": [],
    "severity": "high",
    "structured": {
      "id": "CVE-2026-78604",
      "aliases": [
        "CVE-2026-78604"
      ],
      "metrics": [
        {
          "type": "CVSS_V3",
          "score": "CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H"
        }
      ],
      "affected": [
        {
          "ranges": [
            {
              "repo": "https://github.com/elastic/elastic-agent",
              "type": "GIT",
              "events": [
                {
                  "introduced": "0"
                },
                {
                  "fixed": "8d71fbe66d560a0f921a70afa0d0299ff8ddebf6"
                },
                {
                  "introduced": "9786ac7df1b9a78fb3fdab059148274404dba926"
                },
                {
                  "fixed": "e4298a05ff4d939fb1791c4974e0b0fe46039de7"
                },
                {
                  "introduced": "361f37ea5bb2523bc389359ae587e099beca9c20"
                },
                {
                  "fixed": "abae0c4393b11bd6d50e37e935ea4125ff2baae0"
                }
              ],
              "database_specific": {
                "extracted_events": [
                  {
                    "cpe": "cpe:2.3:a:elastic:elastic_agent:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
                    "range": [
                      {
                        "introduced": "8.0.0"
                      },
                      {
                        "fixed": "8.19.21"
                      }
                    ],
                    "source": "CPE_RANGE"
                  },
                  {
                    "cpe": "cpe:2.3:a:elastic:elastic_agent:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
                    "range": [
                      {
                        "introduced": "9.0.0"
                      },
                      {
                        "fixed": "9.4.6"
                      }
                    ],
                    "source": "CPE_RANGE"
                  },
                  {
                    "cpe": "cpe:2.3:a:elastic:elastic_agent:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
                    "range": [
                      {
                        "introduced": "9.5.0"
                      },
                      {
                        "fixed": "9.5.2"
                      }
                    ],
                    "source": "CPE_RANGE"
                  }
                ]
              }
            }
          ],
          "versions": [
            "v9.5.1",
            "v8.19.20",
            "v9.4.5",
            "v9.5.0",
            "v8.19.19",
            "v9.4.4",
            "v8.19.18",
            "v9.4.3",
            "v8.19.17",
            "v8.19.16",
            "v9.4.2",
            "v9.4.1",
            "v9.4.0",
            "v8.19.15",
            "v8.19.14",
            "v8.19.13",
            "v8.19.12",
            "v8.19.11",
            "v8.19.10",
            "v8.19.9",
            "v8.19.8",
            "v8.19.7",
            "v8.19.6",
            "v8.19.5",
            "v8.19.4",
            "v8.19.3",
            "v8.19.2",
            "v8.19.1",
            "v8.19.0"
          ],
          "database_specific": {
            "source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/cve-osv-conversion/osv-output/CVE-2026-78604.json"
          }
        }
      ],
      "modified": "2026-10-28T02:30:32.437304564Z",
      "provider": "osv",
      "references": [
        "https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elastic-agent-8-19-21-9-4-6-9-5-2-security-update-esa-2026-150/390109",
        "https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/tree/main/cves/2026/78xxx/CVE-2026-78604.json",
        "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-78604"
      ],
      "provider_metadata": {
        "cwe_ids": [
          "CWE-732"
        ],
        "cna_assigner": "elastic",
        "unresolved_ranges": [
          {
            "extracted_events": [
              {
                "range": [
                  {
                    "introduced": "8.0.0"
                  },
                  {
                    "last_affected": "8.19.20"
                  },
                  {
                    "introduced": "9.0.0"
                  },
                  {
                    "last_affected": "9.4.5"
                  },
                  {
                    "introduced": "9.5.0"
                  },
                  {
                    "last_affected": "9.5.1"
                  }
                ],
                "source": "AFFECTED_FIELD",
                "strategy": "StandardRange"
              }
            ]
          }
        ],
        "osv_generated_from": "https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/tree/main/cves/2026/78xxx/CVE-2026-78604.json"
      }
    },
    "related_cves": [
      {
        "value": "CVE-2026-78604",
        "evidence": "/id"
      }
    ],
    "security_relevant": true,
    "severity_evidence": "/severity/0/score"
  },
  "source_id": "core-osv",
  "document_id": 499669,
  "published_at": "2026-09-02T14:43:11.344+00:00"
}