CVE-2026-78604
HIGHDescription
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.
How to fix
TridentStack Control can deploy fixes like this automatically across your Windows, macOS, and Linux fleet. See how it works
Remediation is compiled from vendor and distribution security advisories. Always confirm against the linked source for your exact version and platform.
CVSS v3 Vector
Exploitability
Impact
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Exploit Intelligence
Low risk: more likely to be exploited than 1% of all known CVEs.
References
Related Vulnerabilities
Other CWE-732 (Incorrect Permission Assignment for Critical Resource) vulnerabilities, ordered by exploit likelihood. View all
| CVE | Severity | CVSS | EPSS | Exploited | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CVE-2011-3923 | Critical | 9.8 | 89% | - | Fix |
| CVE-2018-15379 | Critical | 9.8 | 86% | - | - |
| CVE-2018-1000207 | High | 7.2 | 64% | - | - |
| CVE-2023-32986 | High | 8.8 | 61% | - | - |
| CVE-2021-44521 | Critical | 9.1 | 55% | - | Fix |
| CVE-2018-13374 | Medium | 4.3 | 38% | KEV + Ransom | Fix |
Common questions
How do I fix CVE-2026-78604?
Upgrade elastic agent to 8.19.21 or later.
Is CVE-2026-78604 being actively exploited?
Not that we know of. CVE-2026-78604 is not in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. Its EPSS score of 0.10% is the estimated probability that it will be exploited in the next 30 days. That is higher than 1% of all scored CVEs.
How severe is CVE-2026-78604?
CVE-2026-78604 has a CVSS v3 base score of 7.8, rated high. CVSS rates the technical impact if the vulnerability is exploited, not how likely that is, so weigh it alongside the exploit-prediction score when you decide what to patch first.
What does CVE-2026-78604 affect?
Published advisories record a fix for elastic agent (NVD). Only products with a sourced advisory are listed, so treat this as what we can cite rather than a complete inventory.
Embed a live status badge for CVE-2026-78604
Markdown
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TridentStack Control continuously scans your Windows, macOS, and Linux fleet for known vulnerabilities, prioritizes them by severity and active exploitation, and patches them automatically.
This product uses NVD data but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. EPSS scores courtesy of FIRST.org (https://www.first.org/epss). Source: CISA KEV Catalog. Data as of 2026-09-04.