CVE-2026-121021 in Axxon One
Summary
by MITRE • 11/03/2026
Plaintext Storage of a Password (CWE-256) in the SecurityManager shared configuration in AxxonSoft Axxon One before 3.1.0 on Windows and Linux allows a local attacker with read access to the configuration directory or to configuration backups to obtain the password of the LDAP directory service account via the main.conf configuration file.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 11/03/2026
The vulnerability identified as CWE-256, representing the plaintext storage of passwords, affects AxxonSoft Axxon One versions prior to 3.1.0 across both Windows and Linux operating systems. This security flaw is located within the SecurityManager shared configuration component, specifically manifesting in the main.conf file. The core technical deficiency lies in the application's failure to encrypt or hash sensitive credentials before persisting them to disk. Instead of employing robust cryptographic mechanisms such as bcrypt, scrypt, or Argon2, the software stores the password for the LDAP directory service account directly in clear text within its primary configuration structure. This design choice fundamentally undermines the confidentiality guarantees expected by enterprise security architectures and exposes critical authentication material to any entity capable of accessing the underlying file system.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is significant due to the specific privileges associated with the compromised credential. The stored password belongs to an account used for interacting with an LDAP directory service, which typically manages user identities, permissions, and organizational structures within a networked environment. By obtaining these plaintext credentials, a local attacker who possesses read access to the configuration directory or its backups can authenticate as this service account against the LDAP server. This unauthorized authentication allows the attacker to query sensitive employee data, modify group memberships, reset other users' passwords, or potentially escalate privileges by leveraging the administrative capabilities often granted to directory service accounts. The risk is further amplified in environments where backup procedures are not adequately secured, allowing attackers who may have gained limited initial access through a different vector to harvest these credentials from archived configuration files that might be stored with less stringent permissions than the live application data.
From an industry standard perspective, this vulnerability aligns directly with CWE-256: Storage of Password in a Format Accessible by Other Users. It also relates closely to CWE-798: Use of Hard-coded Credentials if the password was embedded statically rather than dynamically loaded, though the primary classification remains plaintext storage. In terms of attack vectors and tactics, this flaw facilitates lateral movement and privilege escalation within an ATT&CK framework context. Specifically, it supports techniques such as T1003: OS Credential Dumping, where attackers extract credentials from local systems to expand their access footprint. Furthermore, if the LDAP account has broad permissions, the attacker could leverage T1078: Valid Accounts to maintain persistent access or T1546: Event Triggered Execution by modifying directory-based policies that trigger specific actions upon user login. The presence of these plaintext passwords in configuration files also violates principles outlined in NIST SP 800-63B regarding the secure storage and handling of authenticators, which mandates that stored secrets must be protected against unauthorized disclosure through encryption or irreversible hashing with appropriate salt values.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability require both immediate remediation and long-term architectural improvements. The primary corrective action is to upgrade AxxonSoft Axxon One to version 3.1.0 or later, where the vendor has presumably implemented secure credential storage mechanisms such as encryption at rest or hashing with salt. For organizations unable to immediately patch their systems, temporary mitigations include restricting file system permissions on the configuration directory and backup locations to ensure that only the application service account can read them, thereby limiting exposure to local users who might otherwise exploit this flaw. Additionally, administrators should rotate the LDAP service account password as a precautionary measure after applying any available patches or implementing access controls. Long-term resilience against such vulnerabilities involves adopting a zero-trust architecture where configuration files are never trusted with plaintext secrets and instead rely on external secret management solutions like HashiCorp Vault or Azure Key Vault to inject credentials at runtime, ensuring that sensitive data does not persist in readable formats on disk.