EUVD-2026-39408
GHSA-qq5f-hjr7-p57f
Severity by source
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:L/VI:N/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:P/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X
AC:H reflects the specific prerequisite that the attacker's IP must fall within an active Nessus scan scope, which is not a default or guaranteed condition; PR:N because no Nessus credentials are required.
Primary rating from Vendor (tenable).
CVSS VectorVendor: tenable
Lifecycle Timeline
4DescriptionCVE.org
A SQL injection vulnerability in Nessus allows a remote, unauthenticated attacker who controls reverse DNS records for a scanned host to inject malicious SQL into the scan results database, potentially enabling exfiltration of scan-result data.
AnalysisAI
SQL injection in Tenable Nessus exposes scan-result databases to exfiltration by any remote unauthenticated attacker who controls the reverse DNS (PTR) records for a host being scanned. When Nessus resolves the hostname of a scanned target via PTR lookup, the returned value is incorporated into a SQL query without adequate sanitization, enabling read-level access to the scan results database. A proof-of-concept is indicated by the CVSS temporal metric (E:P), and Tenable has acknowledged the issue via advisory TNS-2026-17; no public active exploitation (CISA KEV) is confirmed at time of analysis.
Technical ContextAI
Nessus (CPE: cpe:2.3:a:tenable:nessus:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*) is a widely deployed enterprise vulnerability scanner that performs reverse DNS lookups on scanned IP addresses as part of its host identification and result-enrichment pipeline. CWE-89 (Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an SQL Command) indicates the root cause: PTR record values returned from attacker-controlled DNS infrastructure are concatenated directly into SQL queries rather than passed as parameterized inputs. Because the PTR response is external, attacker-controlled data, the trust boundary between network input and the internal SQL query is violated at the point where scan metadata is persisted to the Nessus results database.
RemediationAI
Apply the update referenced in Tenable advisory TNS-2026-17 at https://www.tenable.com/security/tns-2026-17 - exact patched version numbers should be confirmed there, as they are not independently specified in the available input data. As a compensating control where immediate patching is not feasible, restrict the Nessus instance's scan scopes to fully trusted, internally controlled IP ranges so that attacker-influenced PTR records cannot reach the scan pipeline; note this limits external attack-surface scanning capability. Additionally, placing the Nessus results database behind strict access controls (read/write separation at the DB user level) can reduce the blast radius of successful SQL injection by limiting what data is accessible to the query context. If Nessus provides a configuration option to disable reverse DNS resolution during scans, disabling it eliminates the injection surface at the cost of less readable host identification in reports.
The BN_mod_sqrt() function, which computes a modular square root, contains a bug that can cause it to loop forever for n
The duration function in the moment package before 2.11.2 for Node.js allows remote attackers to cause a denial of servi
Insufficiently Protected Credentials: An authenticated user with debug privileges can retrieve stored Nessus policy cred
Simultaneous Multi-threading (SMT) in processors can enable local users to exploit software vulnerable to timing attacks
The /server/properties resource in Tenable Web UI before 2.3.5 for Nessus 5.2.3 through 5.2.7 allows remote attackers to
Vulnerability in Tenable Tenable.Io, Tenable Nessus, Tenable Security Center.Io: before Plugin Feed ID #202306261202 ; N
As part of our Security Development Lifecycle, a potential privilege escalation issue was identified internally. Rated h
A privilege escalation vulnerability was identified in Nessus versions 8.10.1 through 8.15.8 and 10.0.0 through 10.4.1.
An authenticated attacker could create an audit file that bypasses PowerShell cmdlet checks and executes commands with a
In Tenable Nessus versions prior to 10.8.5 on a Windows host, it was found that a non-administrative user could overwrit
Nessus 8.5.2 and earlier on Windows platforms were found to contain an issue where certain system files could be overwri
Nessus 6.6.2 - 6.10.3 contains a flaw related to insecure permissions that may allow a local attacker to escalate privil
Same weakness CWE-89 – SQL Injection
View allShare
External POC / Exploit Code
Leaving vuln.today