Metasploit Pro on Windows: Local Privilege Escalation via OpenSSL Configuration File Loading

published 2026-05-15 5mo ago modified 2026-10-26 16d ago also EUVD-2026-30498

cvss: 8.5; version 4.0, 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

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.

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CISA SSVC

Exploitation: none
Automatable: no
Technical impact: total
Assessed: 5mo ago (2026-05-15)

Exploit prediction

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

CVSS scores

assigned by	version	score	vector
CNA	4.0	8.5	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
CNA	4.0	8.5	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/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X

Affected products

Rapid7 Metasploit Pro

Classification

Weakness

CWE-829 Inclusion of Functionality from Untrusted Control Sphere
CWE-427 Uncontrolled Search Path Element
CWE-284 Improper Access Control

References

docs.rapid7.com /insight/release-notes-5.0.0-2026051301/#:~:text=Pro%3A%20We%20fixed,vulnerability%20to%20Rapid7.
release-notes

Sources

CVE List CVE-2026-7373
NVD CVE-2026-7373

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