# CVE-2025-40551: Web Help Desk - RCE

> Live exploitation tracking for CVE-2025-40551 by the CrowdSec Live Exploit Tracker, built from real-world attack data crowdsourced from CrowdSec's global network.

Page: https://tracker.crowdsec.net/cves/CVE-2025-40551

## Key facts

- **Exploitation phase:** Limited Exploitation. The vulnerability is known but shows very limited attacker interest or exploitation activity.
- **CVSS score:** 9.8
- **Public exploit available:** Yes
- **Affected products:** SolarWinds Web Help Desk
- **Weaknesses:** CWE-502 (Deserialization of Untrusted Data)
- **Tags:** enterprise_software, management_panel

## Description

SolarWinds Web Help Desk was found to be susceptible to an untrusted data deserialization vulnerability that could lead to remote code execution, which would allow an attacker to run commands on the host machine. This could be exploited without authentication.

## CrowdSec analysis

[CVE-2025-40551](https://euvd.enisa.europa.eu/vulnerability/CVE-2025-40551) is a critical vulnerability in SolarWinds Web Help Desk that allows unauthenticated attackers to exploit an untrusted data deserialization flaw, leading to remote code execution on the host system. This vulnerability could enable threat actors to run arbitrary commands, potentially resulting in full system compromise, data theft, or service disruption.

CrowdSec has been tracking this vulnerability and its exploits since 18th of March 2026.

CrowdSec has not observed any significant exploitation activity targeting CVE-2025-40551 across its network. As a result, no community-driven trend analysis is available for this vulnerability at this time.

Attackers exploit unauthenticated endpoints under `/helpdesk/WebObjects/Helpdesk.woa/wo/` and `/ajax/` by abusing JSON-RPC requests to inject malicious JNDI payloads, enabling remote code execution via insecure deserialization in SolarWinds Web Help Desk. The attack often leverages query parameters containing `/ajax/` to bypass CSRF and URI validation controls.

## Timeline

- 2026-01-28: CVE Published. CVE-2025-40551 is published to NVD.
- 2026-02-03: CISA KEV. CVE-2025-40551 is added to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog by CISA.
- 2026-02-06: CISA Remediation Deadline. Expiration of the CISA remediation deadline as described in [BOD 22-01](https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/directives/bod-22-01-reducing-significant-risk-known-exploited-vulnerabilities).
- 2026-03-18: Rule Released. CrowdSec releases a rule to detect CVE-2025-40551 exploitation attempts against the CrowdSec Network.
- 2026-04-11: CrowdSec First Seen. CrowdSec observes in-the-wild exploitation of CVE-2025-40551 for the first time.

## References

- https://www.solarwinds.com/trust-center/security-advisories/CVE-2025-40551
- https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2025-40551
- https://documentation.solarwinds.com/en/success_center/whd/content/release_notes/whd_2026-1_release_notes.htm
- https://github.com/projectdiscovery/nuclei-templates/blob/main/http/cves/2025/CVE-2025-40551.yaml

## Live exploitation data

The [Live Exploit Tracker page](https://tracker.crowdsec.net/cves/CVE-2025-40551) follows observed exploitation activity for CVE-2025-40551. [Request an API key](https://tracker.crowdsec.net/request-api-key) for full access to its exploitation timeline, attacking IP addresses and blocklists.