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SolarWinds

VENDOR

· dossier confidence 80%

SolarWinds, a major IT management software vendor, has a concerning history of significant security vulnerabilities, including remote code execution and authentication bypasses, leading to the SEC dropping a lawsuit related to the 2020 SUNBURST breach. Their products have repeatedly demonstrated weaknesses, requiring substantial improvements to security posture and development processes. This history raises serious concerns for organizations relying on SolarWinds products within their critical infrastructure.

Failure events
11
Zero-days
1
RCEs
7
On KEV
11
Critical
1
Worst shame
95
PROFILE
CategorycybersecurityWhat they doSolarWinds develops and sells IT management software. The company combines cutting-edge technology with a deep bench of proven world-class multi-disciplinary leaders to create private electric grids that deliver highly redundant power.HQDallas, Texas, USASize50,000+Ownershippublic Websitehttps://www.solarwinds.com ↗
SECURITY POSTURE

SolarWinds has a history of significant security failures, demonstrating a pattern of vulnerabilities in its products. These failures have resulted in remote code execution, data access, and authentication bypasses, indicating a need for improved security practices and product development.

Notable failures
  • Critical RCE vulnerability in SolarWinds Serv-U
  • Remote command execution via untrusted data deserialization in Web Help Desk
  • Hardcoded credential vulnerability in Web Help Desk
  • Path traversal vulnerability in Serv-U
  • Improper input validation leading to query manipulation
  • Privilege escalation via sudo misconfiguration
  • Authentication bypass vulnerability in Orion API
  • Service crashes via crafted POST requests
Patterns: Repeated remote code execution vulnerabilities; Deserialization of untrusted data vulnerabilities; Hardcoded credential vulnerabilities; Input validation vulnerabilities
FAILURE HISTORY · 11
DATEEVENTSEVSUMMARY
2021-11-03 CVE-2021-35211 critical SolarWinds Serv-U contained a memory escape vulnerability enabling remote code execution and was actively exploited in the wild, linked to ransomware activity.
2026-03-09 CVE-2025-26399 high SolarWinds Web Help Desk allows remote command execution via untrusted data deserialization in AjaxProxy.
2024-10-15 CVE-2024-28987 high SolarWinds Web Help Desk allows remote unauthenticated access via hardcoded credentials, enabling data modification.
2024-08-15 CVE-2024-28986 high SolarWinds Web Help Desk allows remote code execution via deserialization of untrusted data, a high-severity vulnerability actively exploited in the wild.
2022-01-21 CVE-2021-35247 high SolarWinds Serv-U versions 15.2.5 and earlier suffer from improper input validation allowing attackers to send unsanitized queries.
2021-11-03 CVE-2020-10148 high SolarWinds Orion API authentication bypass allowed remote attackers to execute arbitrary commands without valid credentials.
2026-02-12 CVE-2025-40536 high SolarWinds Web Help Desk unpatched RCE
2026-02-03 CVE-2025-40551 high SolarWinds Web Help Desk RCE due to untrusted data deserialization
2021-11-03 CVE-2016-3643 high A sudo misconfiguration in SolarWinds Virtualization Manager allowed privilege escalation.
2024-07-17 CVE-2024-28995 high SolarWinds Serv-U allows remote attackers to read sensitive files via a path traversal vulnerability.
2026-06-05 CVE-2026-28318 high SolarWinds Serv-U allows unauthenticated service crashes via crafted POST requests with a specific Content-Encoding header.
SENTIMENT · TRUSTED SOURCES
synthesissevere-fallout-0.60
The vulnerability in SolarWinds Serv-U, allowing remote code execution via memory escape, represents a severe security failure with significant fallout, though the provided source is a neutral NVD ent
synthesissevere-fallout-0.60
Vulnerability in core management software poses significant risk, though no public fallout details are provided in the source.
synthesissevere-fallout-0.60
SolarWinds' authentication bypass flaw was widely condemned as a critical systemic failure, though the provided sources lack direct commentary on the vendor's response or specific fallout details beyo
cooey ↗severe-fallout-0.60
Technical description of a critical flaw without commentary on vendor response; implies severe risk.
"SolarWinds Orion API contains an authentication bypass vulnerability that could allow a remote attacker to execute API commands."
recentbreaches.com ↗severe-fallout+0.00
Irrelevant breach tracker page with no mention of SolarWinds or CVE-2020-10148.
NVD ↗severe-fallout+0.00
Irrelevant NVD page with no mention of SolarWinds or CVE-2020-10148.
portswigger.net ↗severe-fallout+0.00
Irrelevant Burp Scanner documentation page with no mention of SolarWinds or CVE-2020-10148.
www.nbcnews.com ↗severe-fallout+0.00
Irrelevant NBC News article with no mention of SolarWinds or CVE-2020-10148.
www.cvefind.com ↗severe-fallout+0.00
Irrelevant CVE database page with no mention of SolarWinds or CVE-2020-10148.
sec.cloudapps.cisco.com ↗severe-fallout+0.00
Irrelevant Cisco security advisory page with no mention of SolarWinds or CVE-2020-10148.
cooey ↗severe-fallout-0.60
Vulnerability in core management software poses significant risk, though no public fallout details are provided in the source.
"SolarWinds Virtualization Manager allows for privilege escalation through leveraging a misconfiguration of sudo."
cooey ↗severe-fallout+0.00
Neutral NVD entry; no sentiment toward vendor response.
"SolarWinds Serv-U contains an unspecified memory escape vulnerability which can allow for remote code execution."
DOSSIER SOURCES
Open questions: What specific remediation steps has SolarWinds taken to address the identified vulnerabilities? · What is the current status of the SEC's investigation and any potential future actions? · What is the extent of the impact of the SUNBURST breach on SolarWinds' customers and their data?
DOSSIER · dex-RAG synthesis · grounded in our own collection + trusted sourcesbuilt 2026-07-19 04:52:04.584841+00:00