CVE-2025-40554
Published: 28 January 2026
Summary
CVE-2025-40554 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 Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked in the top 9.0% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified are NIST 800-53 AC-14 (Permitted Actions Without Identification or Authentication) and AC-3 (Access Enforcement).
Threat & Defense at a Glance
Threat & Defense Details
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5)AI
Explicitly identifies and limits actions performable without identification or authentication, directly preventing exploitation of this authentication bypass vulnerability allowing unauthorized invocation of specific actions.
Requires identification and authentication of organizational users before allowing access, comprehensively mitigating authentication bypass vulnerabilities like CVE-2025-40554.
Enforces approved authorizations for access to system resources, countering the unauthorized actions enabled by this authentication bypass.
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
CVE-2025-40554 is an authentication bypass in a public-facing SolarWinds Web Help Desk application, directly enabling exploitation of public-facing applications (T1190).
NVD Description
SolarWinds Web Help Desk was found to be susceptible to an authentication bypass vulnerability that, if exploited, could allow an attacker to invoke specific actions within Web Help Desk.
Deeper analysisAI
CVE-2025-40554 is an authentication bypass vulnerability in SolarWinds Web Help Desk. The issue, published on 2026-01-28, allows an attacker to invoke specific actions within the Web Help Desk application without proper authentication. It is associated with CWE-1390 and 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), indicating critical severity due to its potential for high impacts across confidentiality, integrity, and availability.
A remote attacker with network access can exploit this vulnerability with low complexity, no required privileges, and no user interaction. Exploitation enables the attacker to perform unauthorized actions within Web Help Desk, potentially leading to unauthorized access, data manipulation, or disruption of services as permitted by the bypassed authentication controls.
SolarWinds addresses the vulnerability in its security advisory at https://www.solarwinds.com/trust-center/security-advisories/CVE-2025-40554 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, which detail patches and mitigation guidance.
Details
- CWE(s)