CVE-2025-40537
Published: 28 January 2026
Summary
CVE-2025-40537 is a high-severity Use of Hard-coded Credentials (CWE-798) vulnerability in Solarwinds Web Help Desk. Its CVSS base score is 7.5 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Valid Accounts (T1078); ranked at the 2.9th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
Threat & Defense at a Glance
Threat & Defense Details
Likely Mitigating ControlsAI
Per-CVE control mapping for this CVE has not run yet; the list below is derived from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry.
Enables users to notice when hard-coded credentials have been exploited for unauthorized access.
Security training explicitly warns against hard-coded credentials, lowering their use in systems.
Policy and procedures prohibit hard-coded credentials in favor of managed authentication.
External identity providers eliminate the need for hard-coded credentials in applications.
Changing default authenticators prior to first use and protecting content prevents use of hard-coded credentials.
Central credential stores and rotation policies remove the need for hard-coded credentials in configuration files or code.
Intelligence programs surface reports of campaigns that abuse hard-coded credentials in products, prompting removal or replacement and thereby reducing successful exploitation.
Planned investment enables secure credential storage and management systems instead of hard-coded credentials.
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
Hardcoded credentials (CWE-798) directly provide valid accounts for admin access and represent unsecured credentials stored in the application.
NVD Description
SolarWinds Web Help Desk was found to be susceptible to a hardcoded credentials vulnerability that, under certain situations, could allow access to administrative functions.
Deeper analysisAI
CVE-2025-40537, published on 2026-01-28, is a hardcoded credentials vulnerability (CWE-798) affecting SolarWinds Web Help Desk. The issue could allow access to administrative functions under certain situations. It has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.5 (AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H), indicating network accessibility, high attack complexity, low privilege requirements, no user interaction, unchanged scope, and high impacts on confidentiality, integrity, and availability.
An authenticated attacker with low privileges can exploit this vulnerability over the network if they satisfy the high attack complexity conditions. Successful exploitation enables access to administrative functions, resulting in high-level compromise of confidentiality, integrity, and availability.
SolarWinds provides mitigation guidance in its security advisory at https://www.solarwinds.com/trust-center/security-advisories/CVE-2025-40537 and the Web Help Desk 2026.1 release notes at https://documentation.solarwinds.com/en/success_center/whd/content/release_notes/whd_2026-1_release_notes.htm.
Details
- CWE(s)