Vulnerability Report

CVE-2025-40538

Title: Broken access control leading to RCE in Serv-U

Auth Bypass

Proof Of Concept

No public PoC currently indexed for CVE-2025-40538.

CWE Category CWE-269
Published Date Feb 24, 2026
Modified Date Feb 24, 2026
Exploit Status Not Found
Score 9.1 CVSS v3.1
Exploit Probability (EPSS)
0.05%

Vulnerability Summary

CVE-2025-40538: A broken access control vulnerability exists in Serv-U which when exploited, gives a malicious actor the ability to create a system admin user and execute arbitrary code as a privileged account via domain admin or group admin privileges. 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.

Impacted Vendors

C
cat_soft 1
R
rhinosoft 1
S
solarwinds 1

Reference Links

https://documentation.solarwinds.com/en/success_center/servu/content/release_notes/servu_15-5-4_release_notes.htm https://www.solarwinds.com/trust-center/security-advisories/CVE-2025-40538
CVSS v3.1
Source Entity [email protected]
Severity CRITICAL
9.1
Attack Vector
NETWORK
Complexity
LOW
Privileges
N/A
Interaction
NONE
Confidentiality
N/A
Integrity
N/A
Availability
N/A
Scope
CHANGED
RAW VECTOR CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
CVSS v3.1
Source Entity [email protected]
Severity HIGH
7.2
Attack Vector
NETWORK
Complexity
LOW
Privileges
N/A
Interaction
NONE
Confidentiality
N/A
Integrity
N/A
Availability
N/A
Scope
UNCHANGED
RAW VECTOR CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Associated Attack Patterns (CAPEC)

Total: Patterns

CVE-2025-40538 Exploits & PoCs (Proof Of Concept)

No public PoCs found in our database for this CVE.

MODIFIED

Vulnerability data updated via NVD.

MODIFIED

Vulnerability data updated via NVD.

MODIFIED

Vulnerability data updated via NVD.

MODIFIED

Vulnerability data updated via NVD.

Attack Vector Matrix

Access Vector NETWORK
Complexity LOW
Privileges N/A
Interaction NONE
CVSS Vector String CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

Affected Stack

No specific products linked.