Detections
Analytics

SCA: security update for neuro-cortex-memory (GHSA-gvpp-v77h-5w8g)

high Tenable Cloud Security Plugin ID 444201

Description

There are packages installed that are affected by a vulnerability referenced in the following CVE:

 - The Cortex MCP server (`neuro-cortex-memory`), a cross-platform persistent memory MCP, prior to version
 3.17.1 treats the `CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR` environment variable — automatically set by Claude Code to the
 currently open project directory — as a trusted Cortex developer checkout. When the `open_visualization`
 tool is invoked, `_find_dev_source()` resolves the user's active project directory as a candidate Cortex
 source root. The only validation performed by `_is_cortex_root()` is a check for the presence of an
 `mcp_server/` subdirectory and a `ui/unified-viz.html` file. An attacker who places these two marker files
 in a malicious repository can cause Cortex to execute an arbitrary
 `mcp_server/server/visualize_bootstrap.py` from that directory via `subprocess.run([sys.executable,
 ...])`, achieving code execution with the privileges of the victim's local user process. Version 3.17.1
 fixes the issue. (CVE-2026-49986)

Solution

Update the neuro-cortex-memory library and its related packages to version 3.18.0 or later.

See Also

https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-gvpp-v77h-5w8g

Plugin Details

Severity: High

ID: 444201

Version: Revision 1.3

Type: Local

Family: SCA Checks

Published: 7/1/2026

Updated: 8/18/2026

Supported Sensors: Tenable Cloud Security, Tenable Self-Hosted Container Security

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 4.9

Percentile: 58.03

Vendor

Vendor Severity: High

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7.5

Temporal Score: 5.5

Vector: CVSS2#AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2026-49986

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: Critical

Base Score: 9.8

Temporal Score: 8.5

Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:U/RL:O/RC:C

CVSS v4

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 8.5

Threat Score: 7.1

Threat Vector: CVSS:4.0/E:P

Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

Vulnerability Information

Exploit Ease: No known exploits are available

Patch Publication Date: 7/1/2026

Vulnerability Publication Date: 7/1/2026

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2026-49986

cwe: CWE-829