Cyber Resilience

CVE-2026-28302

Access Control in Solarwinds Serv-U ≤ 2026.3

Published
21 July 2026
Modified
24 July 2026
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 9.1
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0056 43th percentile
Risk Priority 70 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2026-28302 is a critical-severity Authorization Bypass Through User-Controlled Key (CWE-639) vulnerability in Solarwinds Serv-U. Its CVSS base score is 9.1 (Critical).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068); ranked at the 43th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to AC-3 (Access Enforcement) and AC-6 (Least Privilege) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

SolarWinds Serv-U is affected by an insecure direct object reference (IDOR) vulnerability that can lead to privilege escalation and remote code execution as root. This issue requires group administrator access. The impact is lower in Windows deployments.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI

T1068 Exploitation for Privilege Escalation Privilege Escalation
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to elevate privileges.
Why these techniques?

IDOR in Serv-U directly enables authenticated privilege escalation to root RCE, mapping to T1068.

Confidence: HIGH · MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise v19.0

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2026-28317Same product: Solarwinds Serv-U
CVE-2026-28316Same product: Solarwinds Serv-U
CVE-2026-28305Same product: Solarwinds Serv-U
CVE-2026-28312Same product: Solarwinds Serv-U
CVE-2026-28310Same product: Solarwinds Serv-U
CVE-2026-28306Same product: Solarwinds Serv-U
CVE-2026-28307Same product: Solarwinds Serv-U
CVE-2026-28314Same product: Solarwinds Serv-U
CVE-2026-28308Same product: Solarwinds Serv-U
CVE-2026-28321Same product: Solarwinds Serv-U

Affected Assets

solarwinds
serv-u
≤ 2026.3

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)
  • AC-3 Access Enforcement
  • AC-6 Least Privilege
  • AC-4 Information Flow Enforcement
Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)

Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

prevent

Directly enforces authorization checks on object references, blocking the IDOR that allows group admins to access unauthorized objects leading to privilege escalation.

prevent

Restricts group administrator privileges to the minimum required, reducing the attack surface for escalation to root/RCE via the IDOR flaw.

prevent

Enforces controlled information flow between subjects and objects, mitigating unauthorized direct object access that bypasses intended authorization boundaries.

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-05 full match
prevents

Enforcing authorization policy and least privilege directly blocks user-controlled key tampering that bypasses access checks.

PR.IR-01 mostly match
prevents

Logical access controls prevent unauthorized data access that results from missing authorization checks on object references.

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.

detects

Security testing can detect missing authorization checks but does not prevent the weakness in production.

prevents

Information access restriction explicitly enforces that users may only retrieve data they are authorized to see, directly addressing user-controlled key bypass.

prevents

Access control policy directly requires enforcement of authorization rules that prevent unauthorized access via manipulated keys.

prevents

Managing access rights includes ensuring users can only access their own records and not bypass authorization by altering identifiers.

mitigates

Privileged access rights control restricts what data each user may access, mitigating direct object reference attacks.

prevents

Secure development lifecycle includes authorization design but does not itself implement runtime access checks.

References