Medium severity · published Apr 13, 2026
CVE-2026-0232
Cortex XDR Agent: Local Administrator can disable the agent on Windows
4.4
CVSS
0.1%
EPSS
No
On KEV
Description
A problem with a protection mechanism in the Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR agent on Windows allows a local Windows administrator to disable the agent. This issue may be leveraged by malware to perform malicious activity without detection.
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Attack vector
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
High
User interaction
None
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High
Scope
Unchanged
Exploitation
Is it being used?
Exploit prediction (EPSS)0.1% · higher than 4% of CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo evidence yet
CISA KEVNot listed
Ransomware campaign useNot known
Affected products
Which versions
CX
Cortex XDR Agent · Palo Alto Networks
9.0 before 9.0.1; 8.9 before 8.9.1; 8.7-CE before 8.7.101-CE; 8.3-CE before 8.3-CE-CU-2120; 7.9-CE before 7.9-CE-CU-2120 · source: vendor, NVD
References
NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-0232
CVE.org
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-0232
Vendor Advisory
https://security.paloaltonetworks.com/CVE-2026-0232
More from Cortex XDR Agent
4.0
CVE-2026-0230
Cortex XDR Agent: Local Administrator can disable the agent on macOS