CVE-2025-40552
Solarwinds Web Help Desk ≤ 2026.1
Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:HSummary
CVE-2025-40552 is a critical-severity Weak Authentication (CWE-1390) vulnerability in Solarwinds Web Help Desk. Its CVSS base score is 9.8 (Critical).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Brute Force (T1110); ranked in the top 1% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to IA-12 (Identity Proofing) and IA-2 (Identification and Authentication (Organizational Users)) — see the control section below for these in your framework.
Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary
Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.
CVE-2025-40552 is an authentication bypass vulnerability in SolarWinds Web Help Desk. If exploited, it allows a malicious actor to execute actions and methods that should be protected by authentication. The issue, published on 2026-01-28, carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 9.8 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H) and maps to CWE-1390.
The vulnerability enables exploitation by any remote, unauthenticated attacker over the network with low attack complexity and no user interaction. Successful exploitation bypasses authentication controls, granting the attacker access to perform privileged operations and potentially achieving high impacts on confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the affected system.
SolarWinds provides mitigation guidance in its security advisory at https://www.solarwinds.com/trust-center/security-advisories/CVE-2025-40552 and release notes for Web Help Desk 2026.1 at https://documentation.solarwinds.com/en/success_center/whd/content/release_notes/whd_2026-1_release_notes.htm. A proof-of-concept script demonstrating exploitation of CVE-2025-40552 (alongside CVE-2025-40553) is publicly available on GitHub at https://github.com/watchtowrlabs/watchTowr-vs-SolarWinds-WebHelpDesk-CVE-2025-40552-CVE-2025-40553/blob/main/watchTowr-vs-SolarWinds-WebHelpDesk-CVE-2025-40552-CVE-2025-40553.py.
OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2025-206429
Vulnerability Data
SolarWinds Web Help Desk was found to be susceptible to an authentication bypass vulnerability that if exploited, would allow a malicious actor to execute actions and methods that should be protected by authentication.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Control response
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- 9 hardening rules · 7 OS baselines
V7.6.1V6.3.6V6.4.2V6.4.4
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Requires identity proofing at appropriate assurance levels before granting accounts, directly addressing insufficient proof of identity.
Requires unique identification and authentication of users, directly stopping weak mechanisms from being used.
Requires device identification and authentication before establishing connections.
Extends strong identification and authentication requirements to non-organizational users.
Mandates proper authenticator issuance, management, and strength to ensure claimed identities are verified.
Enforces access decisions based on authenticated identities, making weak authentication less exploitable.
Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI
Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.
Explicitly requires authentication of users/services/hardware with MFA and password-strength controls.
Identity proofing and binding is a core prerequisite for non-weak authentication.
Credential management directly supports stronger authentication but does not guarantee proof of identity.
Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI
Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.
Mandating multi-factor and non-password authentication techniques counters the use of inherently weak single-factor or password-only authentication mechanisms.
Strong-password and non-reuse requirements raise the bar against weak single-factor authentication that can be exploited via guessing or credential stuffing.
Hardening callouts derived
Configuration rules from DISA STIG baselines that bear on weaknesses of the type cited by this CVE. Each rule is shown with the relationship its mapping actually records, against the CWE it was authored against. Derived via CVE→CWE over `controls_xwalks` (authoritative rows only; rows rated `none` are excluded).
Oracle Linux 8 (1 rule)
- V-248827 OL 8 must not have the rsh-server package installed. prevents CWE-1390
RHEL 7 (1 rule)
- V-204442 The Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system must not have the rsh-server package installed. prevents CWE-1390
RHEL 8 (1 rule)
- V-230492 RHEL 8 must not have the rsh-server package installed. prevents CWE-1390
Ubuntu 22.04 (1 rule)
- V-260470 Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, when booted, must require authentication upon booting into single-user and maintenance modes. prevents CWE-1390
Windows 10 (1 rule)
- V-220865 The Windows Remote Management (WinRM) service must not use Basic authentication. prevents CWE-1390
Windows 11 (1 rule)
- V-253418 The Windows Remote Management (WinRM) service must not use Basic authentication. prevents CWE-1390