Detect SolarWinds Web Help Desk Security Control Bypass (CVE-2025-40536) in Splunk
Detects exploitation of CVE-2025-40536, a security control bypass vulnerability (CWE-693) in SolarWinds Web Help Desk. This vulnerability is actively exploited in the wild (CISA KEV) and allows attackers to bypass authentication or authorization controls within the Web Help Desk application. Successful exploitation may enable unauthorized access to ticketing data, credential stores, or administrative functions.
MITRE ATT&CK
SPL Detection Query
index=* sourcetype IN ("solarwinds:whd", "iis", "apache_access", "nginx:plus:kv", "solarwinds:helpdesk")
| eval is_whd_path=if(match(uri_path, "(?i)/helpdesk/|/WebHelpDesk/|/whd/"), 1, 0)
| eval suspicious_bypass=if(
match(uri_query, "(?i)bypass|admin|config|%2e%2e|\.\.[\/]") OR
method IN ("PUT", "DELETE", "PATCH") OR
status IN ("200", "201") AND match(uri_path, "(?i)/(admin|setup|config|security)/"),
1, 0)
| where is_whd_path=1 AND suspicious_bypass=1
| eval cve="CVE-2025-40536"
| stats count AS request_count, values(uri_path) AS paths, values(method) AS methods, values(status) AS statuses, dc(src_ip) AS unique_src_ips BY src_ip, dest_ip, cve
| where request_count >= 3
| sort - request_countDetects potential exploitation of the SolarWinds Web Help Desk security control bypass by identifying suspicious HTTP requests to WHD endpoints, including unauthorized method usage and path traversal attempts, from common web access log sourcetypes.
Data Sources
Required Sourcetypes
False Positives & Tuning
- Authorized administrative scans or health checks from known internal IP ranges
- API integrations that use non-standard HTTP methods as part of normal operation
- Security testing tools performing authorized vulnerability assessments
- Misconfigured monitoring agents generating repeated requests to admin endpoints
Other platforms for CVE-2025-40536
Testing Methodology
Validate this detection against 3 adversary techniques from Atomic Red Team. Each test below lists the behaviour to exercise and the telemetry you should expect to see. Executable commands and cleanup steps are available with Pro.
- Test 1Unauthenticated Access to WHD Admin Endpoint
Expected signal: HTTP request to WHD ticket creation endpoint without session cookie; response code 200 or redirect to a normally-protected resource instead of 401/403
- Test 2HTTP Method Bypass Probe Against WHD API
Expected signal: HTTP PUT request to WHD REST API ticket endpoint without valid session; response code 200 or 204 indicating the operation succeeded without authentication
- Test 3Path Traversal Bypass Attempt on WHD Configuration Endpoint
Expected signal: HTTP GET request containing path traversal sequence /../ targeting WHD admin path; 200 response code indicating bypass of path-level access control
References (4)
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