CVE-2026-2697
Published: 23 February 2026
Summary
CVE-2026-2697 is a medium-severity Authorization Bypass Through User-Controlled Key (CWE-639) vulnerability in Tenable Security Center. Its CVSS base score is 5.3 (Medium).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068); ranked at the 10.5th 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-3 (Access Enforcement) and AC-6 (Least Privilege).
Deeper analysis
CVE-2026-2697 is an Indirect Object Reference (IDOR) vulnerability, mapped to CWE-639, in Security Center. Published on 2026-02-23, it enables an authenticated remote attacker to escalate privileges by manipulating the 'owner' parameter. The issue carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 6.3 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L), reflecting medium severity with network accessibility, low attack complexity, and requirements for low-privilege authentication.
An attacker with existing low-privileged credentials can exploit this over the network without user interaction. By abusing the 'owner' parameter in IDOR fashion, they achieve privilege escalation, alongside low-level impacts to confidentiality, integrity, and availability within the affected Security Center instance.
The primary advisory from Tenable, available at https://www.tenable.com/security/tns-2026-07, provides further details on the vulnerability, including potential mitigation steps. Security practitioners should consult this reference for patch information and workarounds.
OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2026-7387
Vulnerability details
An Indirect Object Reference (IDOR) in Security Center allows an authenticated remote attacker to escalate privileges via the 'owner' parameter.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
The IDOR vulnerability (CVE-2026-2697) allows an authenticated low-privilege attacker to escalate privileges by manipulating the 'owner' parameter, directly enabling T1068: Exploitation for Privilege Escalation.
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Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
AC-3 enforces approved authorizations for access to system resources, directly preventing authenticated low-privilege attackers from escalating privileges via manipulated 'owner' parameters in this IDOR vulnerability.
SI-10 requires validation of inputs like the 'owner' parameter against user context, blocking unauthorized object references that enable IDOR-based privilege escalation.
AC-6 applies least privilege to limit the scope of escalation even if IDOR manipulation partially succeeds, reducing potential impacts to confidentiality, integrity, and availability.