Cyber Resilience

CVE-2025-40554

Solarwinds Web Help Desk ≤ 2026.1

High EPSS
Published
28 January 2026
Modified
03 February 2026
Patch / advisory
View advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 9.8
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS Score 0.57 99th percentile
Risk Priority 94 floored blend · peak EPSS

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 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-2025-40554 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.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

A07:2025 Authentication Failures

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

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.

CWE(s)
CWE-1390

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1110 Brute Force Credential Access
Adversaries may use brute force techniques to gain access to accounts when passwords are unknown or when password hashes are obtained.
attack.mitre.org →
T1078 Valid Accounts Stealth
Adversaries may obtain and abuse credentials of existing accounts as a means of gaining Initial Access, Persistence, Privilege Escalation, or Defense Evasion.
attack.mitre.org →
T1110.001 Password Guessing Credential Access
Adversaries with no prior knowledge of legitimate credentials within the system or environment may guess passwords to attempt access to accounts.
attack.mitre.org →
T1110.003 Password Spraying Credential Access
Adversaries may use a single or small list of commonly used passwords against many different accounts to attempt to acquire valid account credentials.
attack.mitre.org →
T1078.001 Default Accounts Stealth
Adversaries may obtain and abuse credentials of a default account as a means of gaining Initial Access, Persistence, Privilege Escalation, or Defense Evasion.
attack.mitre.org →
T1078.002 Domain Accounts Stealth
Adversaries may obtain and abuse credentials of a domain account as a means of gaining Initial Access, Persistence, Privilege Escalation, or Defense Evasion.
attack.mitre.org →
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2025-40552Same product: Solarwinds Web Help Desk
CVE-2025-40537Same product: Solarwinds Web Help Desk
CVE-2024-28987Same product: Solarwinds Web Help Desk
CVE-2024-28989Same product: Solarwinds Web Help Desk
CVE-2024-45709Same product: Solarwinds Web Help Desk
CVE-2025-26400Same product: Solarwinds Web Help Desk
CVE-2025-40551Same product: Solarwinds Web Help Desk
CVE-2025-40553Same product: Solarwinds Web Help Desk
CVE-2025-26399Same product: Solarwinds Web Help Desk
CVE-2024-28986Same product: Solarwinds Web Help Desk

Affected Assets

solarwinds
web help desk
≤ 2026.1

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

—

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

—

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)
  • 9 hardening rules · 7 OS baselines
Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V7.6.1
  • V6.3.6
  • V6.4.2
  • V6.4.4

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

IA-12 Identity Proofing good match

Requires identity proofing at appropriate assurance levels before granting accounts, directly addressing insufficient proof of identity.

IA-2 Identification and Authentication (Organizational Users) good match

Requires unique identification and authentication of users, directly stopping weak mechanisms from being used.

IA-3 Device Identification and Authentication good match

Requires device identification and authentication before establishing connections.

IA-8 Identification and Authentication (Non-organizational Users) good match

Extends strong identification and authentication requirements to non-organizational users.

IA-5 Authenticator Management good match

Mandates proper authenticator issuance, management, and strength to ensure claimed identities are verified.

AC-3 Access Enforcement partial match

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.

PR.AA-03 full match
prevents

Explicitly requires authentication of users/services/hardware with MFA and password-strength controls.

PR.AA-02 mostly match
prevents

Identity proofing and binding is a core prerequisite for non-weak authentication.

PR.AA-01 partial match
prevents

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.

A.8.5 Secure authentication full match
prevents

Mandating multi-factor and non-password authentication techniques counters the use of inherently weak single-factor or password-only authentication mechanisms.

A.5.17 Authentication information partial match
prevents

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

References