Privilege Escalation via Parallels Appliance Extract Argument Injection

Last updated 8 days ago on 2026-10-26
Created 2 months ago on 2026-09-17

About

Identifies the Parallels Desktop root dispatcher (prl_disp_service) spawning tar/bsdtar with more arguments than its fixed extract command uses. The dispatcher always runs a 5-token command (tar -xf <archive> -C <dir>), so any additional arguments indicate an attacker-controlled folder name injecting extra tar flags. On macOS these flags let tar read or write attacker-chosen paths or execute an external program as root, resulting in local privilege escalation (CVE-2026-90894, Parallels Desktop < 27.0.0).
Tags
Domain: EndpointPlatform: macOSOS: macOSRule Type: ES|QLUse Case: Threat DetectionTactic: Privilege EscalationTactic: Defense EvasionData Source: Elastic DefendVuln: CVE-2026-90894Use Case: VulnerabilityLanguage: esql
Severity
high
Risk Score
73
MITRE ATT&CK™

Privilege Escalation (TA0004)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

Defense Evasion (TA0005)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

License
Elastic License v2(external, opens in a new tab or window)

Definition

Integration Pack
Prebuilt Security Detection Rules
Related Integrations

endpoint(external, opens in a new tab or window)

Query
text code block:
FROM logs-endpoint.events.process-* METADATA _id, _index, _version | WHERE host.os.type == "macos" AND process.parent.name == "prl_disp_service" AND process.name IN ("tar", "bsdtar") AND process.args_count > 5 AND KQL("""process.args : "-xf" AND event.type : "start" """) | EVAL process_args_joined = MV_CONCAT(process.args, " ") | KEEP _id, _index, _version, @timestamp, data_stream.namespace, host.id, host.name, user.id, user.name, process.entity_id, process.parent.name, process.parent.entity_id, process.name, process.executable, process.args_count, process_args_joined

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect Privilege Escalation via Parallels Appliance Extract Argument Injection in the Elastic Security detection engine by installing this rule into your Elastic Stack.

To setup this rule, check out the installation guide for Prebuilt Security Detection Rules(external, opens in a new tab or window).