Ethical Hacking News
CISA flags critical SolarWinds RCE flaw as exploited in attacks. A vulnerability discovered by Horizon3.ai security researcher Jimi Sebree can allow unauthenticated attackers to gain remote command execution on unpatched devices, according to a recent update from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). The agency ordered federal agencies to patch their systems within three days. SolarWinds Web Help Desk is a popular help desk management software used by thousands of organizations worldwide.
CISA has flagged a critical SolarWinds Web Help Desk vulnerability (CVE-2025-40551) as actively exploited in attacks, ordering federal agencies to patch their systems within three days. The vulnerability allows unauthenticated attackers to gain remote command execution on unpatched devices due to an untrusted data deserialization weakness. SolarWinds has patched multiple related vulnerabilities, including a hardcoded-credentials flaw and two authentication-bypass security flaws. CISA encouraged all network defenders, including those in the private sector, to patch their devices against ongoing CVE-2025-40551 attacks as soon as possible.
CISA has flagged a critical SolarWinds Web Help Desk vulnerability, CVE-2025-40551, as actively exploited in attacks and ordered federal agencies to patch their systems within three days. This security flaw stems from an untrusted data deserialization weakness discovered by Horizon3.ai security researcher Jimi Sebree, which can allow unauthenticated attackers to gain remote command execution on unpatched devices.
The same day, SolarWinds also patched a high-severity hardcoded-credentials vulnerability (CVE-2025-40537) discovered by Sebree and two authentication-bypass security flaws (CVE-2025-40552 and CVE-2025-40554) reported by watchTowr's Piotr Bazydlo, all of them remotely exploitable. These vulnerabilities highlight the critical need for software updates and patch management in organizations.
CISA added CVE-2025-40551 to its catalog of flaws exploited in the wild and gave Federal Civilian Executive Branch (FCEB) agencies three days to secure their systems, as mandated by the Binding Operational Directive (BOD) 22-01, issued in November 2021. Although BOD 22-01 targets only federal agencies, CISA encouraged all network defenders, including those in the private sector, to patch their devices against ongoing CVE-2025-40551 attacks as soon as possible.
Admins are advised to patch their systems as soon as possible, given that hackers have frequently exploited Web Help Desk vulnerabilities in the wild. For instance, CISA tagged a Web Help Desk hardcoded credentials flaw in October 2024 as actively exploited, and SolarWinds addressed a patch bypass in September 2025 for another Web Help Desk RCE flaw flagged as exploited in attacks.
Web Help Desk is a popular help desk management software among government agencies, large corporations, healthcare organizations, and educational institutions. SolarWinds claims that more than 300,000 customers worldwide use its IT management products.
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Related Information:
https://www.ethicalhackingnews.com/articles/CISA-Flags-Critical-SolarWinds-RCE-Flaw-as-Exploited-in-Attacks-ehn.shtml
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/cisa-flags-critical-solarwinds-rce-flaw-as-actively-exploited/
https://blog.netmanageit.com/cisa-flags-critical-solarwinds-rce-flaw-as-exploited-in-attacks/
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/cisa-warns-critical-solarwinds-rce-bug-is-exploited-in-attacks/
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-40551
https://www.cvedetails.com/cve/CVE-2025-40551/
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-40537
https://www.cvedetails.com/cve/CVE-2025-40537/
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-40552
https://www.cvedetails.com/cve/CVE-2025-40552/
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-40554
https://www.cvedetails.com/cve/CVE-2025-40554/
Published: Tue Feb 3 19:49:19 2026 by llama3.2 3B Q4_K_M
