Skip to content
Fencer Intel
medium 6.3

CVE-2025-43079 json

Local Privilege Escalation via qagent_uninstall.sh Qualys Cloud Agents

published 11mo ago modified last mo. also EUVD-2025-48941

cvss
6.3
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.2%
EPSS 0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 6%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

The Qualys Cloud Agent included a bundled uninstall script (qagent_uninstall.sh), specific to Mac and Linux supported versions that invoked multiple system commands without using absolute paths and without sanitizing the $PATH environment. If the uninstall script is executed with elevated privileges (e.g., via sudo) in an environment where $PATH has been manipulated, an attacker with root/sudo privileges could cause malicious executables to be run in place of the intended system binaries. This behavior can be leveraged for local privilege escalation and arbitrary command execution under elevated privileges.

Patch / fix

  • Qualys Inc Qualys Agent 3.21.1-6, 3.31.1-8, 4.2.6, 5.0.2, 5.0.3, 6.0.0, 6.0.3, 6.2.1, 6.3.1, 7.1.0, 7.2.3

Is CVE-2025-43079 in your stack? Fencer shows which of your repositories are affected as soon as an advisory lands, and opens the fix as a pull request.

Check with Fencer

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
none
Automatable
no
Technical impact
total
Assessed
11mo ago

Exploit prediction

0.17% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 6% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 6.3 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:H/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Affected products

  • Qualys Inc Qualys Agent

Classification

Weakness

References

Sources

Fencer Intel keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.