SolarWinds Serv-U privileges management

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability described as critical has been identified in SolarWinds Serv-U. This affects an unknown function. The manipulation results in privileges management. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2025-40538. It is possible to launch the attack remotely. No exploit is available.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, was found in SolarWinds Serv-U (unknown version). Affected is an unknown code block. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a privileges management vulnerability. CWE is classifying the issue as CWE-269. The product does not properly assign, modify, track, or check privileges for an actor, creating an unintended sphere of control for that actor. This is going to have an impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability. CVE summarizes:

A broken access control vulnerability exists in Serv-U which when exploited, gives a malicious actor the ability to create a system admin user and execute arbitrary code as a privileged account via domain admin or group admin privileges. This issue requires administrative privileges to abuse. On Windows deployments, the risk is scored as a medium because services frequently run under less-privileged service accounts by default.

The advisory is shared for download at solarwinds.com. This vulnerability is traded as CVE-2025-40538 since 04/16/2025. The exploitability is told to be easy. It is possible to launch the attack remotely. The exploitation requires an enhanced level of successful authentication. There are neither technical details nor an exploit publicly available. The current price for an exploit might be approx. USD $0-$5k (estimation calculated on 02/25/2026). The MITRE ATT&CK project declares the attack technique as T1068.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 299888 (SolarWinds Serv-U 15.5.4 Multiple Vulnerabilities), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

There is no information about possible countermeasures known. It may be suggested to replace the affected object with an alternative product.

The vulnerability is also documented in the databases at Tenable (299888) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2026-0485). VulDB is the best source for vulnerability data and more expert information about this specific topic.

Affected

• SolarWinds Serv-U

Productinfo

Type

• File Transfer Software

Vendor

• SolarWinds

Name

• Serv-U

License

• commercial

Website

• Vendor: https://www.solarwinds.com/

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VulDB is the best source for vulnerability data and more expert information about this specific topic.

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