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Nessus AgentApplication · Tenable

CVE-2025-36631

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-06-13
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 10.8.5 or later.
See remediation →
80/100
Remediation priority · High
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
In Tenable Agent versions prior to 10.8.5 on a Windows host, it was found that a non-administrative user could overwrite arbitrary local system files with log content at SYSTEM privilege.

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

Tenable Agent versions prior to 10.8.5 on Windows contain a local privilege escalation vulnerability where a non-administrative user can overwrite arbitrary local system files with log content running at SYSTEM privilege, allowing privilege escalation to full SYSTEM access.

MitigationUpgrade Tenable Agent to version 10.8.5 or later on all affected Windows hosts.

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
Nessus AgentApplication
Affected:< 10.8.5

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
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/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. Verify Tenable Nessus Agent is installed on Windows
    Check for the presence of the Tenable Nessus Agent service using 'Get-Service -Name *Tenable*' or 'sc query' command, or look for the agent in Programs and Features.
    Affected if Tenable Nessus Agent is found installed on the Windows system
  2. Identify the installed Tenable Agent version
    Run 'nessuscli agent version' if available, or check the program's About/Version information in the installed directory, or query the Windows Registry under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Tenable\NessusAgent for the Version value.
    Affected if The installed version is lower than 10.8.5 (e.g., 10.8.4, 10.8.3, etc.)
  3. Confirm the Tenable Agent service is running
    Check the status of the Tenable Nessus Agent service using 'Get-Service -Name NessusAgent' or 'sc query NessusAgent' - the service runs with SYSTEM privileges.
    Affected if The NessusAgent service is running (vulnerability requires the agent to be active for privilege escalation)
  4. Verify non-administrative users exist on the system
    Check for local non-admin user accounts using 'Get-LocalUser' or 'net user' command.
    Affected if There are non-administrative user accounts present on the affected system

A system is affected if Tenable Nessus Agent version 10.8.4 or earlier is installed and running on Windows with non-administrative users present.

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
Upgrade available Upgrade to 10.8.5 or later
Fixed in 10.8.5
Interim mitigation

Upgrade Tenable Agent to version 10.8.5 or later on all affected Windows hosts.

Recommended fix High confidence

Nessus Agent 10.8.5 or later

  1. 1. Identify the current Nessus Agent version installed on Windows systems using 'nessuscli agent info' or checking Add/Remove Programs.
  2. 2. Download Nessus Agent version 10.8.5 or later from the Tenable downloads portal at www.tenable.com/downloads.
  3. 3. Review Tenable's official upgrade documentation for Nessus Agent before proceeding with the update.
  4. 4. Apply the upgrade following Tenable's recommended upgrade procedure for Windows environments.
  5. 5. After upgrade completion, verify the new version is 10.8.5 or higher using 'nessuscli agent info'.
  6. 6. Confirm the vulnerability is remediated by verifying that non-administrative users can no longer overwrite system files with SYSTEM privilege.

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

Fix this in Nessus Agent Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
9.0 hours of engineering $1,600
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,560.

Scan for this in your stack

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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-2025-36631 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