{"answers":{"affected":"It affects 1 product.","exploited":"There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-40538 in the wild and no public exploit code.","fix":"No fix has been published for CVE-2025-40538 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.","what":"CVE-2025-40538 is a critical vulnerability in Solarwinds Serv-U, published on 24 Feb 2026. An attacker needs administrator access to exploit it, with no action from the victim."},"fix_prompt":"Check this codebase for CVE-2025-40538 and fix it if it is affected.\n\nWhat it is: CVE-2025-40538 is a critical vulnerability in Solarwinds Serv-U, published on 24 Feb 2026. An attacker needs administrator access to exploit it, with no action from the victim.\nExploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-40538 in the wild and no public exploit code.\n\nAffected product: Solarwinds Serv-U. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.\n\nTask:\n1. 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.\n2. 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.\n3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.\n4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.\n5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.\n\nReference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-40538/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-40538/index.md)","id":"CVE-2025-40538","markdown":"https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-40538/index.md","name":"CVE-2025-40538","record":{"aliases":["GHSA-x366-cwf7-x9gv"],"analysis":{"component_type":"server_software","fix_type":"patch","impacts":["privilege_escalation","code_execution"],"network_reachable":"yes","non_default_config":false,"product_category":"SolarWinds Serv-U","requires_auth":"high_privilege","summary":"An attacker with administrative privileges can create a system admin user and execute arbitrary code via broken access control in Serv-U.","user_interaction":"not_required","vuln_class":"privilege_escalation"},"analysis_generated_by":"qwen3.8-flash-next","assigner":"SolarWinds","cpe":[{"product":"serv-u","vendor":"solarwinds"}],"cvss":{"score":9.1,"severity":"critical","source":"cna","vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H","version":"3.1"},"cwes":[{"id":"CWE-269","name":"Improper Privilege Management"}],"description":"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.\n\nThis 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.","ecosystems":[],"exploits":{"exploitdb":0,"first_seen":null,"github_poc":0,"max_poc_stars":null,"metasploit":0,"nuclei":0,"refs":[],"tier":"none_known"},"has_fix":null,"headline":"SolarWinds Serv-U Broken Access Control Remote Code Execution Vulnerability","id":"CVE-2025-40538","indexable":true,"kev":null,"kind":"cve","links":{"ecosystem":null,"product":"solarwinds:serv-u","products":["solarwinds:serv-u"],"type":"privilege_escalation","year":"2025"},"n_packages":0,"n_references":2,"next":{"headline":"SolarWinds Serv-U Type Confusion Remote Code Execution Vulnerability","id":"CVE-2025-40539"},"packages":[],"prev":{"headline":"SolarWinds Web Help Desk Hardcoded Credentials Vulnerability","id":"CVE-2025-40537"},"products":["Serv-U"],"published":"2026-02-24","related":[{"cvss_score":9,"headline":"SolarWinds Serv-U Remote Code Execution","id":"CVE-2021-35211","kev_date_added":"2021-11-03","published":"2021-07-14"},{"cvss_score":8.6,"headline":"SolarWinds Serv-U Path Traversal Vulnerability","id":"CVE-2024-28995","kev_date_added":"2024-07-17","published":"2024-06-06"},{"cvss_score":7.5,"headline":"SolarWinds Serv-U Uncontrolled Resource Consumption","id":"CVE-2026-28318","kev_date_added":"2026-06-05","published":"2026-06-04"},{"cvss_score":4.3,"headline":"SolarWinds Serv-U Improper Input Validation","id":"CVE-2021-35247","kev_date_added":"2022-01-21","published":"2022-01-07"},{"cvss_score":9.8,"headline":"Code injection in n/a","id":"CVE-2020-35481","kev_date_added":null,"published":"2021-02-03"},{"cvss_score":9.1,"headline":"SolarWinds Serv-U Insecure Direct Object Reference (IDOR) Vulnerability","id":"CVE-2026-28302","kev_date_added":null,"published":"2026-07-21"},{"cvss_score":9.1,"headline":"SolarWinds Serv-U Remote Code Execution Vulnerability","id":"CVE-2026-28304","kev_date_added":null,"published":"2026-07-21"}],"sources":[{"class":"attribution","licence":"CVE Terms of Use (MITRE)","name":"CVE List","prefix":"CVE"},{"class":"attribution","licence":"US public information, NVD API terms","name":"NVD"},{"class":"attribution","licence":"CWE Terms of Use","name":"CWE (MITRE)"},{"class":"attribution","licence":"FIRST CVSS licence","name":"CVSS (FIRST)"}],"ssvc":{"automatable":"no","exploitation":"none","technical_impact":"total"},"state":"PUBLISHED","updated":"2026-02-26","vendors":["SolarWinds"]},"summary":"An attacker with administrative privileges can create a system admin user and execute arbitrary code via broken access control in Serv-U.","url":"https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-40538/"}