# CVE-2022-28291: Information disclosure in Nessus Professional

> Authenticated users with debug privileges can extract cleartext credentials from the Nessus process, compromising stored scanner policies.

- **Severity:** Medium 6.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 17 Oct 2022
- **Updated:** 13 May 2025
- **Also known as:** GHSA-m36f-j5wf-g85f

## What is CVE-2022-28291?

CVE-2022-28291 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Tenable Nessus, published on 17 Oct 2022. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Insufficiently Protected Credentials: An authenticated user with debug privileges can retrieve stored Nessus policy credentials from the “nessusd” process in cleartext via process dumping. The affected products are all versions of Nessus Essentials and Professional. The vulnerability allows an attacker to access credentials stored in Nessus scanners, potentially compromising its customers’ network of assets.

Weakness: CWE-522 (Insufficiently Protected Credentials)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-28291?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Tenable Nessus.

## How do I fix CVE-2022-28291?

No fix has been published for CVE-2022-28291 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2022-28291 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-28291 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-2022-28291 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2022-28291 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Tenable Nessus, published on 17 Oct 2022. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-28291 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-2022-28291/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-28291/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2022-28291
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-28291
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2022-28291

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-28291/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.