CVE-2026-7373 HIGH

CVE-2026-7373: Metasploit Pro on Windows: Local Privilege Escalation via OpenSSL Configuration File Loading

Vendor Rapid7
Product Metasploit Pro
Weakness CWE-829 · Inclusion from untrusted sphere
Published May 15, 2026
Last update May 19, 2026

CVSS base score

8.5/10
Attack vector Local
Attack complexity Low
Privileges required None
User interaction None
Confidentiality
Integrity

CVSS vector

CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:L/SC:H/SI:H/SA:H/E:P

What the vulnerability does

01Description

Rapid7 Metasploit Pro is vulnerable to a local privilege escalation attack that allows a user to gain SYSTEM level control of a Windows host. When started the metasploitPostgreSQL service would start the postgres.exe child process which would in turn load an OpenSSL configuration file from a static location. This static location would be writable by a pre-existing "vagrant" user, if they already existed on the system. Metasploit does not create local accounts, an Administrator would need to create it. By planting a crafted openssl.cnf file an attacker can trick the high-privilege service into executing arbitrary commands. This effectively permits the unprivileged vagrant user to bypass security controls and achieve a full host compromise under the agent's SYSTEM level access.

Key dates

02Disclosure timeline

May 15, 2026 CVE published
May 19, 2026 Record updated