Incorrect permission assignment for critical resource in Elastic Agent - CVE-2026-78604
Published: September 2, 2026
Vulnerability identifier: #VU146674
CSH Severity: Low
CVSS v4: 8.5 [CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N]
CVE-ID: CVE-2026-78604
CWE-ID: CWE-732
Exploitation vector: Local access
Exploit availability:
No public exploit available
Vulnerability details
The vulnerability allows a local user to execute arbitrary code with SYSTEM privileges.
The vulnerability exists due to incorrect permission assignment for critical resource in resources used by the Elastic Agent service when running on Windows systems with Elastic Agent installed in unprivileged mode. A local user can replace binaries to execute arbitrary code with SYSTEM privileges.
Only Windows deployments using the unprivileged installation mode are affected.
Affected software
Elastic Agent
How to mitigate CVE-2026-78604
Install security update from vendor's website.
Elastic Agent - addressed in versions 8.19.21, 9.4.6, 9.5.2