Vulnerability in Elastic Agent

CVE-2026-78604

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.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 7.8 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

Affected products

Weakness classification (CWE)

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2026-78604?
CVE-2026-78604 is a high-severity vulnerability in Elastic Agent, classified under Incorrect Permission Assignment for Critical Resource. CVSS score: 7.8/10. Published 2026-09-02.
How severe is CVE-2026-78604?
High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.8 out of 10.