CVE-2026-19629 in Security Center
Summary
by MITRE • 08/14/2026
A privilege escalation vulnerability exists in Tenable Security Center that allows a user with "Security Manager" role and "manage user" permission on a single group to modify users belonging to other groups. This bypasses the intended access control restrictions and enables unauthorized cross-group user management.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 08/14/2026
This privilege escalation vulnerability in Tenable Security Center represents a critical breakdown in the principle of least privilege and role-based access control mechanisms that are fundamental to secure information systems. The flaw allows an attacker with the specific combination of "Security Manager" role and "manage user" permission on a single group to bypass intended access restrictions and manipulate users belonging to other groups within the system. This represents a significant deviation from proper access control design where administrative boundaries should be strictly enforced to prevent lateral movement and unauthorized modifications across different organizational units or security domains.
The technical nature of this vulnerability stems from insufficient validation of user permissions and group membership boundaries within the application's access control implementation. When a user possesses the "manage user" permission on a single group, the system fails to properly verify whether that user should have the authority to modify users in other groups, creating an unintended privilege escalation path. This flaw operates at the intersection of role-based access control and group-based permissions, where the system incorrectly assumes that group-level administrative rights extend beyond their intended scope without proper cross-group authorization checks.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability creates substantial risk for organizations using Tenable Security Center as their primary security monitoring platform. An attacker who gains access to a user account with these specific permissions can potentially escalate privileges by manipulating users in other groups, potentially gaining access to sensitive data, modifying security configurations, or creating backdoor accounts within different organizational segments. The impact extends beyond simple user management as it undermines the entire security architecture that relies on proper segregation of duties and group-based access controls to maintain operational integrity.
The vulnerability aligns with CWE-284 (Improper Access Control) and represents a classic example of insufficient authorization checking in multi-tenant or group-based systems. It also maps to ATT&CK technique T1078.004 (Valid Accounts: Cloud Accounts) where attackers can leverage legitimate administrative permissions to expand their access within a system. Organizations should implement immediate mitigations including restricting the "manage user" permission scope to single groups, implementing more granular access control policies, and conducting comprehensive audits of existing user permissions to identify potential exploitation paths. Additionally, regular security testing and privileged access management solutions should be deployed to monitor for unauthorized privilege escalation attempts and ensure proper enforcement of access control boundaries.