CVE-2025-40538
Plain English Summary
AI-powered analysis for quick understanding
This vulnerability allows an attacker with administrative privileges to create a system admin user and run any code they want with high-level permissions. While it poses a significant risk, it can only be exploited by someone who already has admin access to the system.
Technical Description
A broken access control vulnerability exists in Serv-U which when exploited, gives a malicious actor the ability to create a system admin user and execute arbitrary code as a privileged account via domain admin or group admin privileges. This issue requires administrative privileges to abuse. On Windows deployments, the risk is scored as a medium because services frequently run under less-privileged service accounts by default.
CVSS Vector Analysis
Vector String
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:HExploit Resources
Search for proof-of-concept code and exploit modules
Official References
Quick Information
Published
Feb 24, 2026
about 1 month ago
Last Modified
Feb 24, 2026
about 1 month ago
Vendor
solarwinds
Product
serv-u
Related Vulnerabilities
This vulnerability allows an attacker to run harmful code on the system as a privileged user, potentially taking full control of the Serv-U software. However, the attacker must already have administrative access to exploit this weakness, which makes it less risky on Windows systems where services typically run with lower privileges.
This vulnerability allows an attacker to run any code they choose with high-level permissions on the affected system. However, they need to have administrative access to exploit it, which makes it less risky on Windows systems where services often run with lower privileges by default.
This vulnerability allows an attacker to run any code they choose with high-level privileges on the affected system. However, they need to have administrative access to exploit it, which makes it less risky on Windows systems where services often run with lower privileges by default.
This vulnerability allows an attacker to run commands on the host machine without needing to log in, making it extremely dangerous. It takes advantage of flaws in the SolarWinds Web Help Desk software that were supposed to be fixed in previous updates, meaning that even patched systems could still be at risk.