CVE-2026-80058 in Secure Connect Gateway
Summary
by MITRE • 09/07/2026
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 a Cleartext Storage of Sensitive Information vulnerability. A low privileged attacker with local access could potentially exploit this vulnerability, leading to information exposure.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 09/07/2026
The identified security flaw within Dell SCG 5.0 Appliance versions prior to 5.36.00.16 and the corresponding Application versions prior to 5.36.00.00 represents a critical failure in data protection mechanisms, specifically categorized under Cleartext Storage of Sensitive Information. This vulnerability arises from the improper handling of confidential data by the application or underlying operating system components, where sensitive information is persisted on disk or memory without adequate cryptographic obfuscation such as encryption or hashing. In modern security architectures, particularly those involving storage management and configuration tools like Dell SCG, the integrity and confidentiality of stored credentials, API keys, session tokens, or administrative passwords are paramount. The absence of these protective measures means that any entity with access to the underlying file system or memory dumps can retrieve this data in its original, readable form, bypassing authentication controls entirely.
From a technical perspective, this flaw aligns directly with CWE-312, which defines Cleartext Storage of Sensitive Information as storing sensitive information using an algorithm that provides no confidentiality protection. The vulnerability is further contextualized by the ATT&CK framework under Tactic TA0043: Discovery and Technique T1552.006 Unsecured Credentials, where adversaries seek to find unsecured credentials stored on local systems or in configuration files. For a low-privileged attacker with local access, this presents a significant escalation path. Although the initial entry point requires only basic user-level privileges, such as those granted to standard service accounts or non-administrative users, the ability to read cleartext sensitive data allows for lateral movement and privilege escalation within the broader infrastructure. The attacker can extract these credentials to authenticate against other services, access remote management interfaces, or manipulate storage configurations without detection by traditional perimeter defenses that do not monitor internal host activity closely.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple information disclosure. In enterprise environments, compromised administrative credentials stored in cleartext can lead to unauthorized modification of storage policies, deletion of critical data volumes, or disruption of service availability. Attackers may use the extracted secrets to impersonate legitimate services, facilitating man-in-the-middle attacks against internal communication channels between SCG components and connected storage arrays. Furthermore, because Dell SCG often manages enterprise-grade storage solutions, the exposure of these credentials could compromise the confidentiality and integrity of large-scale data repositories, leading to regulatory non-compliance with standards such as GDPR, HIPAA, or PCI-DSS, which mandate strict controls over sensitive data at rest. The risk is exacerbated by the fact that local access can often be achieved through various vectors including physical theft, compromised virtual machines sharing host resources, or exploitation of other lower-severity vulnerabilities on the same system.
Mitigation strategies must focus on immediate remediation and long-term architectural improvements. The primary recommendation is to apply the vendor-provided patch immediately by upgrading Dell SCG 5.0 Appliance to version 5.36.00.16 or later, and the Application component to version 5.36.00.00 or higher, as these updates address the underlying code flaws responsible for the insecure storage practices. In addition to patching, organizations should implement strict access controls on the operating system level to limit who can read configuration files and database stores containing sensitive data. Utilizing hardware security modules or dedicated key management services for encrypting stored credentials at rest is essential for preventing future occurrences of this vulnerability class. Security teams should also conduct regular audits using automated tools that scan for cleartext secrets in codebases and configuration files, ensuring adherence to secure coding standards like OWASP ASVS which explicitly require encryption of sensitive data at rest. Finally, monitoring systems should be configured to detect unusual access patterns to credential stores or unexpected file reads by low-privileged accounts, providing an additional layer of defense through behavioral analytics.