Serv U
CVE-2025-40549
CRITICAL
Vulnerability Assessment
| Weakness |
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A01:2025 - Broken Access Control
ASVS 5.0
V5 - File Handling Path canonicalization, traversal prevention
MITRE ATT&CK
2 techniques across 2 tactics: Discovery, Collection 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: 0.26%. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | A remote attacker could access files and directories outside the intended path by sending crafted requests to the affected application. |
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Alert meAnalysisAIv1 – Mar 28, 2026
A Path Restriction Bypass vulnerability exists in Serv-U that when abused, could give a malicious actor with access to admin privileges the ability to execute code on a directory. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.1), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, low attack complexity. This Path Traversal vulnerability could allow attackers to access files and directories outside the intended path.
RemediationAI
A vendor patch is available. Apply the latest security update as soon as possible. Validate and canonicalize file paths. Use chroot or sandboxing. Reject input containing path separators or '../' sequences.
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 Path Traversal (CWE-22), which allows attackers to access files and directories outside the intended path. A Path Restriction Bypass vulnerability exists in Serv-U that when abused, could give a malicious actor with access to admin privileges the ability to execute code on a directory. This issue requires administrative privileges to abuse. On Windows systems, this scored as medium due to differences in how paths and home directories are handled. 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 Path Restriction Bypass vulnerability exists in Serv-U that when abused, could give a malicious actor with access to admin privileges the ability to execute code on a directory.
This issue requires administrative privileges to abuse. On Windows systems, this scored as medium due to differences in how paths and home directories are handled.
Executive ViewAI
CVE-2025-40549 presents critical security risk, a path traversal vulnerability rated CVSS 9.1. This could allow attackers to access or modify files outside intended directories, potentially exposing sensitive configuration or credentials. A patch is available and should be applied immediately given the critical severity.
Apply vendor patch. If immediate patching is not feasible: (1) Restrict file upload functionality via WAF; (2) Implement allowlist-based file type validation; (3) Use chroot/containerization to limit filesystem access.
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
Path traversal exploits occur when applications use user-controlled input to construct file system paths without proper validation.
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