CVE-2026-79738 in Secure Connect Gateway
Summary
by MITRE • 09/09/2026
Dell SCG 5.0 Appliance versions prior to 5.36.00.16 and Dell SCG 5.0 Application versions prior to 5.36.00.00, contains an Use of Hard-coded Credentials vulnerability. An unauthenticated attacker with remote access could potentially exploit this vulnerability, leading to information exposure.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 09/09/2026
The identified security flaw resides within Dell SCG 5.0 Appliance versions prior to build 5.36.00.16 and the corresponding Application versions prior to 5.36.00.00. This vulnerability is classified as a Use of Hard-coded Credentials, which corresponds directly to CWE-798 in the Common Weakness Enumeration taxonomy. The core technical issue involves the presence of static authentication credentials embedded within the software codebase or configuration files that are not unique per deployment instance and cannot be easily changed by system administrators through standard operational procedures. These hard-coded secrets often serve as backdoor accounts, default administrative logins, or service-level authentications intended for development, debugging, or factory reset scenarios but remain active in production environments.
From an attacker perspective, this vulnerability presents a significant risk because it allows unauthenticated access to the system from remote locations. An adversary with network connectivity to the affected Dell SCG appliance can attempt to authenticate using these known default credentials without needing to perform complex exploitation techniques such as buffer overflows or logic bypasses. This aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK framework technique T1078, specifically Valid Accounts, where attackers leverage legitimate system accounts that have been pre-configured by vendors. The ease of access means that automated scanning tools can rapidly identify and exploit these weaknesses across large networks if patching is delayed or misconfigured.
The operational impact of this vulnerability centers on information exposure. Once an attacker gains unauthorized access through the hard-coded credentials, they inherit the privileges associated with those accounts. Depending on the specific role assigned to the hardcoded account, this could range from read-only data access to full administrative control over the storage container grid. In a Storage Container Grid environment, such compromise can lead to the exfiltration of sensitive customer data stored within the array, modification or deletion of critical volume configurations, and potential lateral movement into other connected systems if network segmentation is insufficient. The integrity and confidentiality guarantees provided by the SCG platform are effectively nullified for any entity capable of reaching the management interface with these credentials.
Mitigation strategies must prioritize immediate remediation through software updates. Administrators should upgrade all affected Dell SCG 5.0 Appliance instances to version 5.36.00.16 or later and ensure that associated Application components are updated to at least version 5.36.00.00. These newer releases contain the necessary code changes to remove or properly secure the hard-coded credentials, replacing them with dynamically generated secrets or enforcing strict authentication policies. In environments where immediate patching is not feasible due to operational constraints, network-level controls should be implemented as a compensating measure. This includes restricting access to the management interfaces via firewall rules that limit source IP addresses to trusted administrative subnets and disabling unnecessary services such as HTTP if HTTPS is available. Regular vulnerability scanning programs should also include checks for default credentials to ensure ongoing compliance with security baselines.