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Improper Privilege ManagementWeakness · CWE-269

CVE-2024-2390

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2024-03-18
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
81/100
Remediation priority · High
No privileges

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 a part of Tenable’s vulnerability disclosure program, a vulnerability in a Nessus plugin was identified and reported. This vulnerability could allow a malicious actor with sufficient permissions on a scan target to place a binary in a specific filesystem location, and abuse the impacted plugin in order to escalate privileges.

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 confidence

This is a local privilege escalation vulnerability in a Nessus scanner plugin. An attacker with sufficient permissions on a scan target can place a malicious binary in a specific filesystem location, which is then executed by the Nessus scanner when the vulnerable plugin runs, granting the attacker elevated privileges on the scanner host.

MitigationOrganizations should ensure Nessus installations and plugins are kept up-to-date, restrict scan permissions to trusted personnel only, and avoid scanning untrusted or potentially malicious network targets without proper safeguards.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

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
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

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

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

  1. Confirm Nessus installation exists
    Look for Nessus in common installation directories such as /opt/nessus, /usr/lib/nessus, or C:\Program Files\Tenable\Nessus on Windows. Use 'ls' or 'dir' commands to enumerate these paths.
    Affected if Nessus scanner software is present on the system.
  2. Identify installed Nessus version
    Run the Nessus version command appropriate to your system: 'nessuscli --version' on Linux/Unix, or check the About section in the Nessus web interface. Alternatively, inspect the version file in the installation directory.
    Affected if The installed version falls within the vulnerable version range for CVE-2024-2390 (compare your version to Tenable's official advisory for specific affected versions).
  3. Review enabled scanner plugins
    Access the Nessus web interface, go to Plugins, and review which plugins are enabled. Alternatively, use 'nessuscli plugin-list' or check the plugin directory (e.g., /opt/nessus/lib/nessus/plugins) for loaded plugin files.
    Affected if A plugin vulnerable to CVE-2024-2390 is enabled and loaded in the scanner.
  4. Inspect plugin directory permissions
    Check the permissions on the Nessus plugins directory (typically /opt/nessus/lib/nessus/plugins or equivalent). Use 'ls -la <plugin_directory>' to verify write access is restricted to the nessus user.
    Affected if The plugin directory is writable by non-privileged users, allowing placement of malicious binaries.
  5. Audit scan target access controls
    Review who has permissions to create or modify scan policies and who can execute scans. Check user roles in the Nessus web interface under 'Users' and 'Policies'.
    Affected if Untrusted or low-privilege users have the ability to configure or run scans, enabling them to trigger the vulnerability.

You are affected if Nessus is installed, runs a vulnerable plugin version, and an attacker with scan permissions can write to the plugin execution directory to plant a malicious binary.

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.

From vendor data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Organizations should ensure Nessus installations and plugins are kept up-to-date, restrict scan permissions to trusted personnel only, and avoid scanning untrusted or potentially malicious network targets without proper safeguards.

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation1.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
6.0 hours of engineering $1,060
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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-2024-2390 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
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