Serv U
CVE-2025-40548
CRITICAL
Vulnerability Assessment
| Weakness |
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A06:2025 - Insecure Design
ASVS 5.0
V8 - Authorization Least privilege enforcement
MITRE ATT&CK
1 technique across 1 tactic: Privilege Escalation The technique list with ATT&CK links and the kill-chain view is part of the Basic plan and up. |
| Impact | CVSS score of 9.1 (CRITICAL). Attack characteristics: network attack vector, low complexity, high privileges required, no user interaction not required. EPSS exploitation probability: 0.07%. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | A remote attacker could escalate privileges to gain unauthorized elevated access by sending crafted requests to the affected application. |
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Alert meAnalysisAIv1 – Mar 28, 2026
A missing validation process exists in Serv U when abused, could give a malicious actor with access to admin privileges the ability to execute code. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.1), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, low attack complexity. This Improper Privilege Management vulnerability could allow attackers to escalate privileges to gain unauthorized elevated access.
RemediationAI
A vendor patch is available. Apply the latest security update as soon as possible. Apply principle of least privilege, validate privilege transitions, implement proper role separation.
Affects your stack
Find out whether the stacks and servers you run are on an affected version.
Checking this CVE against your own stacks and servers is part of the Basic plan and up.
Technical ContextAI · show details
This vulnerability is classified as Improper Privilege Management (CWE-269), which allows attackers to escalate privileges to gain unauthorized elevated access. A missing validation process exists in Serv U when abused, could give a malicious actor with access to admin privileges the ability to execute code. This issue requires administrative privileges to abuse. On Windows deployments, the risk is scored as a medium because services frequently run under less-privileged service accounts by default. Affected products include: Solarwinds Serv-U.
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- Exploit and PoC references, threat intelligence from 22 sources
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Severity by source
AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
Primary rating from Vendor (solarwinds) · only source for this CVE.
CVSS VectorVendor: solarwinds
Lifecycle Timeline
2DescriptionCVE.org
A missing validation process exists in Serv U when abused, could give a malicious actor with access to admin privileges the ability to execute code.
This issue requires administrative privileges to abuse. On Windows deployments, the risk is scored as a medium because services frequently run under less-privileged service accounts by default.
Executive ViewAI
CVE-2025-40548 presents critical security risk, a improper privilege management vulnerability rated CVSS 9.1. Attackers could escalate their privileges to gain elevated access beyond their authorized level. A patch is available and should be applied immediately given the critical severity.
Apply vendor patch. If immediate patching is not feasible: (1) Implement network-level access controls to limit exposure; (2) Enable enhanced monitoring and alerting; (3) Apply principle of least privilege.
Threat Intelligence Overview
NVD
CVE.org
EPSS
How this decision was reached
The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.
What every action level means
SSVC AssessmentENISA
Priority Score
Attack Technique
Privilege escalation occurs when an attacker leverages flaws in access control mechanisms to gain permissions beyond what they were originally granted.
Affected Products (CPE)CVE.org
Remote denial-of-service in SolarWinds Serv-U allows unauthenticated attackers to crash the Serv-U service by sending sp
Microsoft discovered a remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability in the SolarWinds Serv-U product utilizing a Remote Mem
SolarWinds Serv-U was susceptible to a directory transversal vulnerability that would allow access to read sensitive fil
In SolarWinds Serv-U before 15.2.2 Hotfix 1, there is a directory containing user profile files (that include users' pas
FTP Voyager 16.2.0 contains a denial of service vulnerability that allows local attackers to crash the application by in
A denial of service vulnerability in SolarWinds Serv-U before 15.1.6 HFv1 allows an authenticated user to crash the appl
Share/IncomingWizard.htm in SolarWinds Serv-U before 15.2.3 mishandles the user-supplied SenderEmail parameter, aka "Sha
Privilege escalation in SolarWinds Serv-U allows an authenticated domain administrator account to abuse an insecure dire
Privilege-scoped remote code execution in SolarWinds Serv-U managed file transfer server stems from an insecure direct o
Privilege-to-root remote code execution in SolarWinds Serv-U managed file transfer server stems from an insecure direct
Remote code execution in SolarWinds Serv-U managed file transfer/FTP server allows an attacker to run arbitrary code rem
Privilege escalation to remote code execution as root in SolarWinds Serv-U stems from an insecure direct object referenc
GitHub PoC
Exploit-DB