# 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.

- **Severity:** High 7.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 3 Dec 2025
- **Updated:** 10 Dec 2025
- **Also known as:** GHSA-2jmq-pwpx-v2pq

## 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 (Inclusion of Functionality from Untrusted Control Sphere)

## 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.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2025-53841 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: 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.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-53841 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Akamai Guardicore Platform Agent. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-53841/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-53841/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-53841
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-53841
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-53841

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-53841/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.