CVE-2026-40636
Published: 11 May 2026
Summary
CVE-2026-40636 is a critical-severity Use of Hard-coded Credentials (CWE-798) vulnerability in Dell Elastic Cloud Storage. Its CVSS base score is 9.8 (Critical).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Unsecured Credentials (T1552); ranked at the 12.9th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2026-29046
Vulnerability details
Dell ECS versions 3.8.1.0 through 3.8.1.7 and Dell ObjectScale versions prior to 4.3.0.0, contains a use of hard-coded credentials vulnerability. An unauthenticated attacker with local access could potentially exploit this vulnerability, leading to filesystem access for attacker.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
Hard-coded credentials (CWE-798) directly constitute unsecured credentials stored in files or binaries; local unauthenticated attacker can abuse them for filesystem access.
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Likely Mitigating Controls AI
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.