# CVE-2020-5774: Auth bypass in Tenable Nessus

> Attackers with local access can hijack active sessions due to improper session expiration in Tenable Nessus.

- **Severity:** High 7.1 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N`)
- **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:** 21 Aug 2020
- **Updated:** 4 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-f37f-gf89-7rm9

## What is CVE-2020-5774?

CVE-2020-5774 is a high-severity authentication bypass vulnerability in Tenable Nessus, published on 21 Aug 2020. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Nessus versions 8.11.0 and earlier were found to maintain sessions longer than the permitted period in certain scenarios. The lack of proper session expiration could allow attackers with local access to login into an existing browser session.

Weakness: CWE-613 (DEPRECATED: Insufficient Session Expiration)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2020-5774?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Tenable Nessus.

## How do I fix CVE-2020-5774?

No fix has been published for CVE-2020-5774 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2020-5774 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-5774 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-2020-5774 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2020-5774 is a high-severity authentication bypass vulnerability in Tenable Nessus, published on 21 Aug 2020. 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-2020-5774 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-2020-5774/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-5774/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2020-5774
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-5774
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2020-5774

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-5774/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.