CVE-2025-53841 Privilege escalation in Guardicore Platform Agent
Unprivileged local users can escalate to SYSTEM privileges by placing a malicious OpenSSL config file in a writable directory used by the Guardicore Agent.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Any signed-in user
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- None listed
What is CVE-2025-53841?
CVE-2025-53841 is a high-severity vulnerability in Akamai Guardicore Platform Agent, published on 3 Dec 2025. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Official description
The GC-AGENTS-SERVICE running as part of Akamai´s Guardicore Platform Agent for Windows versions prior to v49.20.1, v50.15.0, v51.12.0, v52.2.0 is affected by a local privilege escalation vulnerability. The service will attempt to read an OpenSSL configuration file from a non-existent location that standard Windows users have default write access to. This allows an unprivileged local user to create a crafted "openssl.cnf" file in that location and, by specifying the path to a custom DLL file in a custom OpenSSL engine definition, execute arbitrary commands with the privileges of the Guardicore Agent process. Since Guardicore Agent runs with SYSTEM privileges, this permits an unprivileged user to fully elevate privileges to SYSTEM level in this manner.
Weakness: CWE-829
Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-53841?
How do I fix CVE-2025-53841?
No fix has been published for CVE-2025-53841 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.
Is CVE-2025-53841 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-53841 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as GHSA-2jmq-pwpx-v2pq.