Cisco NX-OS Software Bash Shell Role-Based Access Control Bypass Privilege Escalation (CVE-2019-1593)

high Tenable OT Security Plugin ID 501341

Synopsis

The remote OT asset is affected by a vulnerability.

Description

A vulnerability in the Bash shell implementation for Cisco NX-OS Software could allow an authenticated, local attacker to escalate their privilege level by executing commands authorized to other user roles. The attacker must authenticate with valid user credentials. The vulnerability is due to the incorrect implementation of a Bash shell command that allows role-based access control (RBAC) to be bypassed.
An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by authenticating to the device and entering a crafted command at the Bash prompt. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to escalate their privilege level by executing commands that should be restricted to other roles. For example, a dev-ops user could escalate their privilege level to admin with a successful exploit of this vulnerability.

This plugin only works with Tenable.ot.
Please visit https://www.tenable.com/products/tenable-ot for more information.

Solution

Refer to the vendor advisory.

Plugin Details

Severity: High

ID: 501341

Version: 1.2

Type: remote

Family: Tenable.ot

Published: 7/25/2023

Updated: 10/16/2025

Supported Sensors: Tenable OT Security

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 5.9

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7.2

Temporal Score: 6

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

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2019-1593

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7.8

Temporal Score: 7.2

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

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

Vulnerability Information

CPE: cpe:/o:cisco:nexus_7000_series_switches, cpe:/o:cisco:nexus_3000_series_switches, cpe:/o:cisco:nexus_9000_series_switches, cpe:/o:cisco:nexus_3500_series_switches, cpe:/o:cisco:nexus_7700_series_switches, cpe:/o:cisco:nexus_3600_series_switches, cpe:/o:cisco:nexus_9500_series_switches

Required KB Items: Tenable.ot/Cisco

Exploit Available: true

Exploit Ease: Exploits are available

Patch Publication Date: 3/6/2019

Vulnerability Publication Date: 3/6/2019

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2019-1593

Detections

Analytics