Cortex XDR Agent: Improper control of user-controlled file leads to local privilege escalation

A local privilege escalation vulnerability exists in the Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR agent on Windows platforms that enables 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 or to manipulate key registry values.

Work around:
This issue is mitigated by preventing local authenticated Windows users from creating files in the Windows root directory (such as C:) and ensuring they are unable to manipulate the Windows registry.