A vulnerability with a privilege management mechanism in the Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access Agent® enables a locally authenticated non-administrative user to escalate their privileges to root on macOS and Linux or NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM on Windows. This allows the user to execute arbitrary code and read sensitive information otherwise accessible only to privileged accounts. The Prisma Access Agent on iOS, Android and Chrome OS are not affected.
This vulnerability carries a HIGH severity rating with a CVSS v3.1 score of 7.8, requiring local system access to exploit with relatively low complexity without requiring user interaction requiring only low-level privileges . The vulnerability impacts confidentiality (data exposure), integrity (unauthorized modifications), and availability (service disruption) for affected systems. Impacting 4 products from paloaltonetworks, from apple, from linux and 1 other, organizations running these solutions should prioritize assessment and patching.
Reported in 2026, this vulnerability emerged during an era marked by increased sophistication in supply chain attacks, cloud infrastructure vulnerabilities, and software-as-a-service (SaaS) security challenges. Security practices during this period emphasized zero-trust architectures, container security, and API protection.
2026-05-13T19:16:58.603
2026-07-14T16:06:53.343
Analyzed
CVSSv3.1: 7.8 (HIGH)
| Type | Vendor | Product | Version/Range | Vulnerable? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Application | paloaltonetworks | prisma_access_agent | < 26.2.1 | Yes |
| Operating System | apple | macos | - | No |
| Operating System | linux | linux_kernel | - | No |
| Operating System | microsoft | windows | - | No |
SecUtils normalizes and enriches National Vulnerability Database (NVD) records by standardizing vendor and product identifiers, aggregating vulnerability metadata from both NVD and MITRE sources, and providing structured context for security teams. For paloaltonetworks's affected products, we extract Common Platform Enumeration (CPE) data, Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) classifications, CVSS severity metrics, and reference data to enable rapid vulnerability prioritization and asset correlation. This record contains no exploit code, proof-of-concept instructions, or attack methodologies—only defensive intelligence necessary for patch management, risk assessment, and security operations.