dbcve.org
NessusApplication · Tenable

CVE-2023-0524

HIGH · 8.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2023-02-01
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
94/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable Zero-click

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 · unedited
As part of our Security Development Lifecycle, a potential privilege escalation issue was identified internally. This could allow a malicious actor with sufficient permissions to modify environment variables and abuse an impacted plugin in order to escalate privileges. We have resolved the issue and also made several defense-in-depth fixes alongside. While the probability of successful exploitation is low, Tenable is committed to securing our customers’ environments and our products. The updates have been distributed via the Tenable plugin feed in feed serial numbers equal to or greater than #202212212055.

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 confidence

A privilege escalation vulnerability in Tenable products allows a malicious actor with sufficient permissions to modify environment variables and abuse an impacted plugin to gain elevated privileges. The vulnerability was discovered internally and fixed via an updated plugin feed (serial >= #202212212055).

MitigationUpdate Tenable plugin feed to serial #202212212055 or later to receive the patch and defense-in-depth fixes.

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
NessusApplication
Affected:all versions
Tenable.ioApplication
Affected:all versions
Tenable.scApplication
Affected:all versions

CVSS 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
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Check Tenable plugin feed serial number
    Access the Tenable product's plugin management interface or use the appropriate CLI/API command to retrieve the current plugin feed information. Look for the 'serial' or 'plugin_set' version field.
    Affected if The plugin feed serial number is less than #202212212055 (e.g., #202212150000), indicating the vulnerable plugin version is still installed.
  2. Verify plugin version in use
    In the Tenable product interface, navigate to the Plugins/Feed section or use the 'nessuscli' or 'Tenable.sc' API to query the currently loaded plugin version. Confirm the plugin build date matches the patched release.
    Affected if The installed plugin version predates the December 21, 2022 update (serial < #202212212055).
  3. Confirm user permission context
    Review the user account or service account used within the Tenable product. Identify whether that account has permissions to modify system or application environment variables, or execute plugin configurations with elevated context.
    Affected if The account has sufficient privileges (such as administrative or scan execution rights) to modify environment variables that the vulnerable plugin processes.
  4. Identify environment variable access
    Check if the Tenable product or its scanning engine runs with permissions that allow modification of environment variables accessible to plugin execution. This may require reviewing the service account privileges or plugin execution sandboxing settings.
    Affected if The product's plugin execution environment permits environment variable manipulation by the authenticated user with sufficient permissions.

A user is affected if their Tenable product is running with a plugin feed serial number below #202212212055 and the authenticated user has sufficient permissions to modify environment variables that the vulnerable plugin processes.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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.

dbcve · scoped
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Update Tenable plugin feed to serial #202212212055 or later to receive the patch and defense-in-depth fixes.

Recommended fix High confidence

Plugin feed serial number #202212212055 or later (not a software version upgrade; fix delivered via plugin feed update)

  1. Update the Tenable plugin feed to serial number #202212212055 or later
  2. For Nessus: Go to Settings > Plugins > Feed, and ensure the feed is updated to the latest version with serial number >= #202212212055
  3. For Tenable.io: The patch is applied automatically through Tenable's cloud plugin feed; verify the feed is current
  4. For Tenable.sc: Go to Plugins > Plugin Feed and ensure the feed is updated to serial number >= #202212212055
  5. After updating, restart the Tenable service if prompted to ensure the patched plugins are loaded

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Nessus Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation1.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing1.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
5.0 hours of engineering $890
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2023-0524 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

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.

What belongs here
  • 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