CVE-2025-24915

High

Published: 21 March 2025

Published

21 March 2025

Modified

15 April 2026

KEV Added

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Patch

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CVSS Score 7.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

EPSS Score 0.0006 19.3th percentile

Risk Priority 16 60% EPSS · 20% KEV · 20% CVSS

Summary

CVE-2025-24915 is a high-severity Incorrect Default Permissions (CWE-276) vulnerability. Its CVSS base score is 7.8 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Services File Permissions Weakness (T1574.010); ranked at the 19.3th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified are NIST 800-53 AC-6 (Least Privilege) and CM-6 (Configuration Settings).

Threat & Defense at a Glance

What attackers do: exploitation maps to Services File Permissions Weakness (T1574.010). What defenders deploy: see the NIST 800-53 controls recommended below.

Threat & Defense Details

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5)AI

CM-6 Configuration Settings good match

prevent

CM-6 requires establishing and implementing secure configuration settings for file and directory permissions, directly preventing privilege escalation from incorrect default permissions in non-default Nessus Agent installations.

AC-6 Least Privilege good match

prevent

AC-6 enforces the principle of least privilege on system resources, mitigating local privilege escalation by restricting low-privileged users from accessing or modifying insecure sub-directories.

CM-2 Baseline Configuration partial match

prevent

CM-2 develops and maintains baseline configurations that specify secure permissions for software like Nessus Agent, addressing improper defaults during non-default installations.

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI

T1574.010 Services File Permissions Weakness Stealth

Adversaries may execute their own malicious payloads by hijacking the binaries used by services.

attack.mitre.org →

Why these techniques?

The vulnerability is a direct instance of incorrect default directory permissions (CWE-276) on Windows non-default install paths, enabling local privilege escalation via file system permissions weakness.

Confidence: HIGH · MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise v19.0

NVD Description

When installing Nessus Agent to a non-default location on a Windows host, Nessus Agent versions prior to 10.8.3 did not enforce secure permissions for sub-directories. This could allow for local privilege escalation if users had not secured the directories in…

the non-default installation location.

Deeper analysisAI

CVE-2025-24915 affects Nessus Agent versions prior to 10.8.3 when installed to a non-default location on Windows hosts. In such configurations, the agent fails to enforce secure permissions on sub-directories, which could enable local privilege escalation if users have not manually secured those directories. This vulnerability stems from CWE-276 (Incorrect Default Permissions) and carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.8 (AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H).

A low-privileged local user (PR:L) can exploit this issue with low complexity and no user interaction required. By accessing the insecurely permissioned sub-directories in the non-default installation path, the attacker can escalate privileges, potentially achieving high impacts on confidentiality, integrity, and availability.

The Tenable advisory (TNS-2025-02) at https://www.tenable.com/security/tns-2025-02 addresses mitigation by recommending an upgrade to Nessus Agent 10.8.3 or later, which properly enforces secure permissions on sub-directories during non-default installations.