Local Privilege Escalation in cloudflared
Published Oct 2, 2020 · Updated Oct 23, 2026 · Also known as GO-2022-0845, GHSA-hgwp-4vp4-qmm2
Original summary
Normalized public record · Updated Oct 23, 2026
Local Privilege Escalation in cloudflared
Publisher and source text is retained separately from QFinch interpretation.
QFinch assessment
In `cloudflared` versions < 2020.8.1 (corresponding to 0.0.0-20200820025921-9323844ea773 on pkg.go.dev) on Windows, if an administrator has started `cloudflared` and set it to read configuration files from a certain directory, an unprivileged user can exploit a misconfiguration in order to escalate privileges and execute system-level commands. The misconfiguration was due to the way that `cloudflared` reads its configuration file. One of the locations that `cloudflared` reads from (C:\etc\) is not a secure by default directory due to the fact that Windows does not enforce access controls on this directory without further controls applied. A malformed config.yaml file can be written by any user. Upon reading this config, `cloudflared` would output an error message to a log file defined in the malformed config. The user-controlled log file location could be set to a specific location that Windows will execute when any user logs in.
Evidence: public source recordsAffected products
| Affected package, product or range | Fix status |
|---|---|
| Consult the referenced vendor advisory for affected versions. | Consult source advisory |
Matching a version is only one part of assessing exposure. QFinch has not assessed your environment on this public page.
Remediation
Apply the vendor-supported fixed release or mitigation, then verify the affected component is no longer reachable.
- Confirm the affected product and reachable code path exist in your environment.
- Apply the vendor-supported patch or mitigation from the primary advisory.
- Rescan the exact deployed revision and retain verification evidence.
Evidence coverage
- SSVC priority
- LOW
- Confidence
- Not available
- Aliases
- GO-2022-0845, GHSA-hgwp-4vp4-qmm2
Scores appear only when corresponding evidence exists. Missing data is never interpreted as zero risk.
Sources and record history
Record history
Published Oct 2, 2020 · Last refreshed Oct 23, 2026