CVE-2017-6543
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedTenable Nessus before 6.10.2 (as used alone or in Tenable Appliance before 4.5.0) was found to contain a flaw that allowed a remote, authenticated attacker to upload a crafted file that could be written to anywhere on the system. This could be used to subsequently gain elevated privileges on the system (e.g., after a reboot). This issue only affects installations on Windows.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · high confidenceNessus before 6.10.2 (and Tenable Appliance before 4.5.0) on Windows contains an arbitrary file write vulnerability. A remote, authenticated attacker can upload a crafted file and write it to any location on the Windows filesystem, enabling privilege escalation (e.g., by overwriting system files or startup programs).
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data<= 6.10.1= 4.4.0CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Local
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- Low
- User interaction
- Required
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Verify Nessus is installed on WindowsCheck the Windows system for Nessus installation by looking in Program Files for the Tenable folder, or check Services.msc for the 'Nessus' serviceAffected if Nessus service exists on a Windows host
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Determine installed Nessus versionRun 'nessusd --version' from the Nessus bin directory, or check Add/Remove Programs for the Tenable Nessus entryAffected if Installed version is 6.10.1 or lower
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Check Tenable Appliance version (if applicable)If running Tenable Appliance rather than standalone Nessus, check the appliance version through the admin web interface or system infoAffected if Appliance version is exactly 4.4.0
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Confirm Windows platformVerify the operating system is Windows; this vulnerability only affects Windows installations of NessusAffected if Target system is Windows and runs an affected Nessus version
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Assess access to Nessus administrative interfaceReview who has access to the Nessus web interface (port 8834) or API; check local Windows user accounts with administrative rights to the Nessus serviceAffected if Untrusted or unauthorized users have administrative access to Nessus
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Look for suspicious file modificationsUse file integrity monitoring or check timestamps on sensitive files in system directories (e.g., C:\Windows\System32, startup folders) for unexpected changesAffected if Any unauthorized file writes are detected, especially to system or startup locations
You are affected if Nessus <= 6.10.1 or Tenable Appliance 4.4.0 is running on Windows and untrusted users have administrative access to the Nessus service.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataUpgrade to Nessus 6.10.2 or Tenable Appliance 4.5.0 or later. If upgrading is not immediately possible, restrict Nessus administrative access to trusted users only and monitor for unauthorized file modifications on the host system.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing6.0 h
- Review / QA4.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2017-6543 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2017-6543 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.
- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
- No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data