CVE-2026-78604 Incorrect Permission Assignment for Critical Resource in Elastic Agent Leading to Local Privilege Escalation to SYSTEM
Local attackers can escalate privileges to SYSTEM on Windows hosts by exploiting incorrect permissions in Elastic Agent installed in unprivileged mode.
- 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
What is CVE-2026-78604?
CVE-2026-78604 is a high-severity vulnerability in Elastic Agent, published on 2 Sep 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Official description
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.
Weakness: CWE-732
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-78604?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Elastic Elastic Agent.
How do I fix CVE-2026-78604?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Is CVE-2026-78604 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-78604 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Elastic Agent
- CVE-2023-6687 Elastic Agent Insertion of Sensitive Information into Log File
- CVE-2024-37283 Elastic Agent Insertion of Sensitive Information into Log File
- CVE-2023-46669 Elastic Agent / Elastic Endpoint Security local API key disclosure
- CVE-2024-52976 Elastic Agent Inclusion of Functionality from Untrusted Control Sphere
Sources
Also known as GHSA-49f3-27rf-qcff, MINI-j8hr-8m6h-8jg6, MINI-m44x-4w4v-wrxw, MINI-m72v-5p4m-xjrh.