CVE-2026-118465 in Infantia
Summary
by MITRE • 11/09/2026
Shared components expose hard-coded Access, workgroup, CCBasic, DBISAM, and related database credentials that are identical across installations.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 11/09/2026
The vulnerability described involves the exposure of hardcoded database credentials within shared software components, specifically affecting systems utilizing Access, Workgroup, CCBasic, and DBISAM technologies. This flaw represents a critical failure in secure configuration management, where sensitive authentication data is embedded directly into the application code or binary files rather than being stored securely in external configuration files with restricted access permissions. The presence of identical credentials across multiple installations indicates that these values are likely compiled statically into the software distribution package, creating a uniform attack surface for all users deploying this specific version or variant of the software. This practice violates fundamental principles of secure development lifecycle and defense-in-depth strategies by relying on obscurity rather than robust authentication mechanisms.
From a technical perspective, hardcoding credentials allows any attacker with read access to the application files to extract valid usernames and passwords without needing to exploit additional logic flaws in the application itself. In environments using Microsoft Access or Workgroup security models, these hardcoded values may grant administrative-level privileges over database structures, allowing unauthorized users to modify schemas, exfiltrate sensitive data, or delete records entirely. Similarly, for DBISAM and CCBasic implementations, which are often used in embedded or lightweight database scenarios, the exposure of connection strings containing plaintext passwords enables direct network-based attacks if the service is exposed, or local privilege escalation if an attacker gains file system access to the installation directory. The uniformity of these credentials across installations means that a single successful compromise can lead to widespread data breaches affecting multiple distinct organizations or systems simultaneously.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is severe and multifaceted. Immediate risks include unauthorized access to critical business data, leading to potential confidentiality violations such as theft of customer information, intellectual property loss, or regulatory non-compliance with standards like GDPR, HIPAA, or PCI-DSS depending on the nature of the stored data. Beyond data exfiltration, attackers can manipulate database integrity by altering records, injecting malicious entries, or destroying datasets, resulting in significant operational downtime and financial loss. Furthermore, because the credentials are shared across installations, lateral movement becomes significantly easier for threat actors who have compromised one instance; they can attempt to use the same stolen credentials against other systems running identical software versions, potentially leading to a cascading failure of security controls across an entire network segment or enterprise environment.
This vulnerability aligns with CWE-798: Use of Hard-coded Credentials and CWE-259: Use of Hard-coded Password, which classify such practices as high-severity issues due to their ease of exploitation and the difficulty in remediation once deployed. In terms of adversary tactics, this flaw facilitates initial access and credential dumping phases within the MITRE ATT&CK framework, specifically under techniques like T1078 Valid Accounts or T1528 Steal Application Access Tokens if token-based authentication is involved. Attackers can leverage tools to scrape configuration files for these plaintext secrets, bypassing more complex security controls that might otherwise protect the database layer. The lack of unique per-installation credentials also hinders forensic analysis and incident response efforts, as it becomes difficult to attribute specific attacks to individual compromised systems when all share the same authentication artifacts.
Mitigation strategies must focus on immediate remediation and long-term architectural improvements. Administrators should immediately rotate any exposed credentials if they are still in use, although this is often impractical without updating the application itself. The primary solution requires a software update from the vendor that removes hardcoded secrets and implements dynamic configuration loading from secure sources such as environment variables, encrypted configuration files with restricted file system permissions, or dedicated secret management solutions like HashiCorp Vault or Azure Key Vault. For organizations unable to patch immediately, compensating controls include isolating affected systems in segmented network zones, restricting file system access to the application directory using strict operating system-level permissions, and monitoring for unusual database query patterns that might indicate exploitation attempts. Long-term development practices should enforce secure coding standards that prohibit hardcoding sensitive data, ensuring that all authentication mechanisms are configurable per deployment instance to prevent cross-installation compromise scenarios.