{"id":58303,"date":"2025-07-08T03:57:50","date_gmt":"2025-07-08T03:57:50","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2025-08-31T18:38:24","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T00:38:24","slug":"cve-2025-36630-tenable-nessus-arbitrarily-overwrites-system-files-with-privilege-escalation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-36630-tenable-nessus-arbitrarily-overwrites-system-files-with-privilege-escalation\/","title":{"rendered":"<strong>CVE-2025-36630: Tenable Nessus Arbitrarily Overwrites System Files with Privilege Escalation<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Overview<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This blog post aims to provide an in-depth analysis of the CVE-2025-36630 vulnerability. This critical vulnerability affects Tenable Nessus versions prior to 10.8.5 on a Windows host. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-29978-use-after-free-vulnerability-in-microsoft-office-powerpoint-allowing-unauthorized-local-code-execution\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"64880\">vulnerability allows a non-administrative user to overwrite arbitrary local<\/a> system files with log content at SYSTEM privilege. This represents a significant threat to the security of affected <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-52717-sql-injection-vulnerability-in-lifterlms-leads-to-potential-system-compromise\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"65394\">systems and can potentially lead<\/a> to system compromise or data leakage. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-32281-high-severity-missing-authorization-vulnerability-in-focuxtheme-wpkit-for-elementor\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"65315\">vulnerability is especially concerning due to its high severity<\/a>, with a CVSS score of 8.4 which indicates a high impact on confidentiality, integrity and availability.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Vulnerability Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>CVE ID: CVE-2025-36630<br \/>\nSeverity: High (8.4 CVSS score)<br \/>\nAttack Vector: Local<br \/>\nPrivileges Required: Low<br \/>\nUser Interaction: Required<br \/>\nImpact: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-52817-authorization-bypass-in-zealousweb-abandoned-contact-form-7-leads-to-potential-system-compromise\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"65726\">Potential system<\/a> compromise or data leakage<\/p>\n<p><strong>Affected Products<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"ameeb-3495754398\" class=\"ameeb-content-2 ameeb-entity-placement\"><div style=\"border-left: 4px solid #555; padding-left: 20px; margin: 48px 0; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; color: #ffffff; line-height: 1.6; max-width: 700px;\">\r\n  <h2 style=\"margin-top: 0; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 600; display: flex; align-items: center;\">\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/chat\" style=\"display: inline-flex; align-items: center; margin-right: 8px;\">\r\n      <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Best-App-icon-Ameeba.png\" alt=\"Ameeba Chat Icon\" style=\"width: 40px; height: 40px;\" \/>\r\n    <\/a>\r\n    A new way to communicate\r\n  <\/h2>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"margin-bottom: 12px;\">\r\n    Ameeba Chat is built on encrypted identity, not personal profiles.\r\n  <\/p>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"margin-bottom: 16px;\">\r\n    Message, call, share files, and coordinate with identities kept separate.\r\n  <\/p>\r\n\r\n  <ul style=\"list-style: none; padding-left: 0; margin-bottom: 20px;\">\r\n    <li>\u2022 Encrypted identity<\/li>\r\n    <li>\u2022 Ameeba Chat authenticates access<\/li>\r\n    <li>\u2022 Aliases and categories<\/li>\r\n    <li>\u2022 End-to-end encrypted chat, calls, and files<\/li>\r\n    <li>\u2022 Secure notes for sensitive information<\/li>\r\n  <\/ul>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"font-style: italic; font-weight: 600; margin-bottom: 24px;\">\r\n    Private communication, rethought.\r\n  <\/p>\r\n\r\n  <div style=\"display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap; gap: 12px;\">\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/chat\/download\" style=\"background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; padding: 10px 20px; text-decoration: none; border-radius: 6px; font-weight: 500;\">Download Ameeba Chat<\/a>\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/chat\" style=\"border: 1px solid #ffffff; color: #ffffff; padding: 10px 20px; text-decoration: none; border-radius: 6px; font-weight: 500;\">Learn More<\/a>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\n<p>Product | Affected Versions<\/p>\n<p>Tenable Nessus | Prior to 10.8.5<\/p>\n<p><strong>How the Exploit Works<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-4334-critical-privilege-escalation-vulnerability-in-simple-user-registration-plugin-for-wordpress\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"64942\">vulnerability is exploited by a non-administrative user<\/a> who can overwrite arbitrary system files with the log content. This is possible because of inadequate control mechanisms within Tenable Nessus which incorrectly grants SYSTEM level <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2014-7210-overly-privileged-mysql-user-in-pdns-backend-mysql\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"64987\">privilege to non-administrative users<\/a>. The overwritten files could contain sensitive data, which can result in data leakage or even a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-29970-microsoft-brokering-file-system-privilege-escalation-vulnerability\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"65058\">system compromise if critical system files<\/a> are overwritten.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Conceptual Example Code<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"ameeb-3019554909\" class=\"ameeb-content ameeb-entity-placement\"><div class=\"poptin-embedded\" data-id=\"f6b387694f681\"><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\n<p>Here is a conceptual example of how the vulnerability might be exploited. This pseudocode demonstrates how a malicious user may <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-55345-arbitrary-file-overwrite-and-remote-code-execution-vulnerability-in-codex-cli\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"76796\">overwrite a system file<\/a> with log content:<\/p>\n<pre><code class=\"\" data-line=\"\"># Assume the user has already logged in and gained non-administrative access\n# The malicious user decides to overwrite a system file with log content\nuse Tenable Nessus;\nselect log_content from logs;\noverwrite system_file with log_content;\n# The system file is now overwritten with the log content at SYSTEM privilege<\/code><\/pre>\n<p>Note: The above code is a conceptual example and does not represent actual exploit code.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mitigation Guidance<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Users are strongly advised to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-33075-a-critical-windows-installer-vulnerability-that-leads-to-privilege-elevation\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"72409\">install the vendor-supplied patch that addresses this vulnerability<\/a>, which is available for Tenable Nessus version 10.8.5 and onwards. If patching is not immediately possible, the use of a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or Intrusion Detection System (IDS) can provide temporary mitigation by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-20217-denial-of-service-vulnerability-in-snort-3-detection-engine-of-cisco-secure-firewall-threat-defense-software\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"77118\">detecting and preventing the exploitation of this vulnerability<\/a>. However, this is a stopgap measure and does not replace the need for patching. Regularly updating and patching <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-53277-critical-cross-site-request-forgery-csrf-vulnerability-in-infigo-software-is-theme-companion\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"65661\">software is a critical<\/a> component of maintaining system security.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Overview This blog post aims to provide an in-depth analysis of the CVE-2025-36630 vulnerability. This critical vulnerability affects Tenable Nessus versions prior to 10.8.5 on a Windows host. The vulnerability allows a non-administrative user to overwrite arbitrary local system files with log content at SYSTEM privilege. This represents a significant threat to the security of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"vendor":[82],"product":[],"attack_vector":[76],"asset_type":[],"severity":[],"exploit_status":[],"class_list":["post-58303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","vendor-microsoft","attack_vector-privilege-escalation"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58303"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58303\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69492,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58303\/revisions\/69492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58303"},{"taxonomy":"vendor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vendor?post=58303"},{"taxonomy":"product","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product?post=58303"},{"taxonomy":"attack_vector","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/attack_vector?post=58303"},{"taxonomy":"asset_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/asset_type?post=58303"},{"taxonomy":"severity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/severity?post=58303"},{"taxonomy":"exploit_status","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/exploit_status?post=58303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}