# CVE-2025-26397: SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted Deserialization of Untrusted Data Local Privilege Escalation Vulnerability

> A low-privilege attacker with local access can exploit deserialization to escalate privileges and execute malicious files in protected folders.

- **Severity:** High 7.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 24 Jul 2025
- **Updated:** 24 Jul 2025
- **Also known as:** GHSA-4jq7-688w-w4r4

## What is CVE-2025-26397?

CVE-2025-26397 is a high-severity unsafe deserialization vulnerability in SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted, published on 24 Jul 2025. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted is susceptible to Deserialization of Untrusted Data Local Privilege Escalation vulnerability. An attacker with low privileges can escalate privileges to run malicious files copied to a permission-protected folder. This vulnerability requires authentication from a low-level account and local access to the host server.

Weakness: CWE-502 (Deserialization of Untrusted Data)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-26397?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Solarwinds Observability Self-Hosted.

## How do I fix CVE-2025-26397?

No fix has been published for CVE-2025-26397 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2025-26397 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-26397 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted

- [CVE-2025-26395](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-26395/): SolarWinds SWOSH DOM-based reflective XSS Vulnerability (high 7.1)
- [CVE-2026-28297](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-28297/): SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted Stored Cross-Site Scripting Vulnerability (medium 6.1)
- [CVE-2026-28298](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-28298/): SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted Stored Cross-Site Scripting Vulnerability (medium 5.9)
- [CVE-2025-26391](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-26391/): SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted XSS Vulnerability (medium 5.4)
- [CVE-2025-26392](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-26392/): SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted SQL Injection Vulnerability (medium 5.4)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2025-26397 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-26397 is a high-severity unsafe deserialization vulnerability in SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted, published on 24 Jul 2025. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-26397 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-26397/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-26397/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-26397
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-26397
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-26397

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-26397/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.