CVE-2018-1141
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 · uneditedWhen installing Nessus to a directory outside of the default location, Nessus versions prior to 7.0.3 did not enforce secure permissions for sub-directories. This could allow for local privilege escalation if users had not secured the directories in the installation location.
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 · moderate confidenceNessus versions prior to 7.0.3 failed to enforce secure permissions on sub-directories when installed to a non-default location. This permission misconfiguration could allow an unprivileged local user to modify installation directories and achieve privilege escalation.
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< 7.0.3CVSS 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
- High
- Privileges
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/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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Determine if Nessus is installedCheck for Nessus installation on the system using package managers or by locating common installation directoriesAffected if Nessus is found to be installed
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Identify the installed Nessus versionRun the Nessus version command or check the application metadata to retrieve the exact version numberAffected if The version is lower than 7.0.3
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Determine the Nessus installation locationIdentify the directory where Nessus is installed; compare against the default installation path for your operating systemAffected if Nessus is installed to a non-default location
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Check write permissions on the Nessus installation directoryInspect file system permissions on the main Nessus installation directory and its sub-directories using standard OS permission tools; verify which users or groups have write accessAffected if Unprivileged users or groups have write access to Nessus directories or sub-directories in a non-default installation
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Verify ownership of Nessus sub-directoriesCheck the ownership of all sub-directories within the Nessus installation folder; determine if any are owned by unprivileged usersAffected if Sub-directories are owned by or writable by unprivileged users in a non-default installation
You are affected if Nessus version is below 7.0.3, installed in a non-default location, and the installation directory or its sub-directories have insecure permissions allowing unprivileged access.
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 data7.0.3
Upgrade Nessus to version 7.0.3 or later, which enforces secure directory permissions. For existing non-default installations, manually audit and secure directory permissions to restrict write access to privileged users only.
- Consultation1.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2018-1141 — 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-2018-1141 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
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