CVE-2026-80170 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 an Use of Hard-coded Credentials vulnerability. An unauthenticated attacker with remote access could potentially exploit this vulnerability, leading to protection mechanism bypass.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 09/07/2026
The identified security flaw resides within Dell SCG 5.0 Appliance versions prior to build 5.36.00.16 and the corresponding Dell SCG 5.0 Application software prior to version 5.36.00.00, representing a critical failure in authentication architecture known as CWE-798: Use of Hard-coded Credentials. This vulnerability stems from the implementation of static or hardcoded credentials within the application logic that are not subject to standard configuration controls or rotation policies. Unlike typical vulnerabilities where secrets might be exposed through misconfiguration or insecure storage, this flaw embeds valid authentication tokens directly into the software binary or its core libraries. Consequently, these credentials remain constant across all installations of the affected versions, creating a universal backdoor that is independent of user-specific settings or administrative choices.
From an operational perspective, the impact of this vulnerability is severe due to the lack of required authentication for exploitation. An attacker with remote network access can bypass standard protection mechanisms by utilizing these hardcoded credentials to gain unauthorized entry into the system. This effectively nullifies the intended security boundaries designed to restrict access to authorized personnel only. The ability to authenticate without valid user-provided credentials allows an adversary to assume administrative privileges or execute commands within the context of the application, potentially leading to complete compromise of the storage controller gateway infrastructure. Such a breach could result in data exfiltration, manipulation of stored data integrity, and further lateral movement into connected network segments depending on the integration points of the SCG appliance with broader enterprise environments.
This vulnerability aligns closely with MITRE ATT&CK technique T1078: Valid Accounts, specifically where attackers leverage hardcoded credentials to maintain persistent access or bypass authentication controls. The exploitation path typically involves identifying the specific API endpoints or service interfaces that accept these static credentials and crafting requests that authenticate using them rather than standard user tokens. Because the flaw is inherent in the software release itself, it affects all deployments of the specified versions regardless of how securely they are configured by system administrators. This makes traditional security hardening measures ineffective against this specific threat vector unless the underlying code is updated to remove or randomize these static secrets.
Remediation requires immediate action to update the affected Dell SCG 5.0 Appliance and Application software to version 5.36.00.16 and later, which addresses the root cause by replacing hardcoded credentials with dynamic authentication mechanisms. Organizations should verify their inventory of Dell storage infrastructure components to identify any systems running vulnerable versions. In addition to patching, it is advisable to review access logs for signs of unauthorized login attempts using known default or static accounts if such logging capabilities are enabled in the environment. Future development practices must enforce strict adherence to secure coding standards that prohibit hardcoding secrets, instead utilizing externalized configuration management and robust key rotation policies as recommended by industry frameworks like OWASP ASVS.