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Improper Privilege ManagementWeakness · CWE-269

CVE-2025-36640

HIGH · 8.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2026-01-13
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
90/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
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
A vulnerability has been identified in the installation/uninstallation of the Nessus Agent Tray App on Windows Hosts which could lead to escalation of 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 · moderate confidence

A local privilege escalation vulnerability exists in the Nessus Agent Tray App for Windows during installation and uninstallation operations. The vulnerability allows an authenticated local attacker to potentially gain elevated (administrator) privileges by exploiting improper file or registry permissions during these setup/teardown processes.

MitigationApply vendor patches from Tenable when available. In the interim, restrict physical and logical access to systems with Nessus Agent installed, limit non-admin users from initiating installation/uninstallation operations, and monitor for suspicious processes related to the Tray App installer.

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

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/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 Nessus Agent is installed
    Open Control Panel > Programs and Features, or run 'Get-ItemProperty HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\* | Select-Object DisplayName, DisplayVersion' in PowerShell to list installed programs and locate Nessus Agent
    Affected if Nessus Agent for Windows is found on the system
  2. Confirm Tray App component presence
    Check for the Tray App executable (typically named NessusAgentTray.exe or similar) in the Nessus Agent installation directory, commonly at C:\Program Files\Tenable\Nessus Agent\ or C:\Program Files (x86)\Tenable\Nessus Agent\
    Affected if The Tray App executable exists in the Nessus Agent installation folder
  3. Identify installed version
    Right-click the installed Nessus Agent in Programs and Features to view version, or check the registry key HKLM\SOFTWARE\Tenable\NessusAgent\Version, or view the agent's About/Status information through the system tray icon
    Affected if The installed version has not been patched by Tenable (compare against vendor advisories for CVE-2025-36640)
  4. Audit file permissions on Tray App installer files
    Right-click the Tray App executable and folder, select Properties > Security, and verify which users/groups have Write or Full Control permissions. Use icacls.exe from an elevated command prompt (e.g., 'icacls "C:\Program Files\Tenable\Nessus Agent\*"') to list all permission entries
    Affected if Non-administrator users or the Users group have Write, Modify, or Full Control permissions on installer files or directories
  5. Audit registry permissions for Nessus Agent keys
    Open regedit.exe, navigate to HKLM\SOFTWARE\Tenable\NessusAgent\, right-click the key, select Permissions, and verify which users have access. Use 'reg query HKLM\SOFTWARE\Tenable\NessusAgent' from a non-admin command prompt to test read access
    Affected if Non-administrator users have Write or Full Control access to registry keys used during installation or uninstallation

A user is affected if Nessus Agent with the Tray App component is installed and non-privileged users can modify installer files, directories, or registry keys that the Tray App uses during setup or teardown operations.

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

Apply vendor patches from Tenable when available. In the interim, restrict physical and logical access to systems with Nessus Agent installed, limit non-admin users from initiating installation/uninstallation operations, and monitor for suspicious processes related to the Tray App installer.

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation3.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
8.0 hours of engineering $1,420
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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-2025-36640 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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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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