# CVE-2018-1141: Misconfiguration in Nessus

> Local attackers can escalate privileges if Nessus is installed in a non-default directory with insecure permissions.

- **Severity:** High 7.0 (`CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 20 Mar 2018
- **Updated:** 16 Sep 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-3pmq-rcw5-rm9v

## What is CVE-2018-1141?

CVE-2018-1141 is a high-severity vulnerability in Tenable Nessus, published on 20 Mar 2018. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

When 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.

Weakness: CWE-732 (Incorrect Permission Assignment for Critical Resource)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2018-1141?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Tenable Nessus.

## How do I fix CVE-2018-1141?

No fix has been published for CVE-2018-1141 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2018-1141 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2018-1141 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Tenable Nessus

- [CVE-2022-4313](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-4313/): Command injection in Tenable.io, Tenable.sc and Nessus (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2023-0524](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-0524/): Privilege escalation in Tenable.io, Tenable.sc, Nessus (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2023-0101](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-0101/): Privilege escalation in Nessus (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2022-32973](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-32973/): Privilege escalation in Nessus (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2025-36630](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-36630/): Local Privilege Escalation (high 8.4)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2018-1141 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2018-1141 is a high-severity vulnerability in Tenable Nessus, published on 20 Mar 2018. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2018-1141 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Tenable Nessus. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-1141/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-1141/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2018-1141
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2018-1141
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2018-1141

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-1141/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.