Threats / SolarWinds / CVE-2020-10148
CVE-2020-10148
· EUVD no mirror located
· GCVE no mirror located
Verified 2026-08-04
SolarWinds Orion vulnerability
SolarWinds Orion API authentication bypass allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary API commands without valid credentials.
Verdict
Today item — known-exploited.
An authentication bypass in the Orion API permits unauthenticated remote command execution. The high EPSS score and active exploitation in the wild indicate immediate risk to unpatched deployments.
CISA KEV Yes · 2021-11-035EPSS 0.9198 (verify live)6Exploit Weaponized · public PoC7CVSS 9.8 (CISA)4CISA SSVC Exploitation: active · Automatable: yes · Impact: total4
01
Is it exploitable?
— the evidence, ranked above the scoreExploit available
Fully weaponized — public exploit code is cataloged for this vulnerability.We link the existence of the exploit; we do not host or redistribute payloads.
Reported exploitation
564 independent public reports of in-the-wild exploitation are cataloged.Distinct reporting sources (vendor, incident response, government); open them for the underlying claims.
Exploited in the wild
Listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2021-11-03).
Probability (EPSS)
EPSS 0.9198 — modeled likelihood of exploitation activity.EPSS is a daily-changing model output — open the source for today's value.
Severity / affected
CVSS 9.8 (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H) · Affected: SolarWinds, Orion. Confirm exact fixed builds in the vendor advisory.CVSS — CISA-assigned via the ADP container (CVE.org), version 3.1; the CNA left no metrics, so CISA's own score is used ahead of NVD.
Weakness (CWE)
Mapped to CWE-288 Auth Bypass via Alternate Path — weakness family: Authentication.CWE — CNA-assigned (CVE.org); the weakness class drives how the flaw is exploited.
CISA SSVC (triage disposition)
Exploitation: active · Automatable: yes · Technical Impact: totalCISA's own stakeholder-specific triage inputs, published in the CVE record (CISA Coordinator role). NOTE: this is CISA's three decision points; the final Act/Attend/Track decision also requires a Mission & Well-being input not published here, so no overall decision is asserted.
Currency of the record
CISA added this to its KEV catalog 309 days after the CVE record was published.KEV lag = CISA-KEV dateAdded − CVE.org datePublished; a floor on how long the known-exploited flaw sat in the public record before the federal catalog listed it. Severity/weakness here is CNA- or CISA-assigned (current at disclosure), independent of NVD's analysis backlog.
Public exploit available
Public exploit tooling is catalogued for this CVE (a public proof-of-concept / detection template). Catalog entries: nuclei template. We link the catalog page(s) only — no payload or code is hosted or restated here.Link, never host — the catalog page is the source; basicsecurity.net does not redistribute payloads.
02
Who’s exploiting it?
— attribution turns risk into urgencyAttribution not established
No confirmed (advisory-backed) threat-actor attribution is established for this record. Absence of a named actor is not absence of compromise — see Coverage & confidence.
03
Why it matters
— the attack path, told twice: adversary, then board1
Front door — unauthenticated access narrative 1
Attacker
I craft API requests that bypass authentication checks to access protected endpoints.
Business
Attackers gain unauthorized API access without credentials, enabling lateral movement and system compromise.
2
Keys to the kingdom — privilege/identity takeover narrative 2
Attacker
I execute administrative API commands to modify system configurations or extract sensitive data.
Business
Attackers can alter monitoring configurations, disable alerts, or exfiltrate credentials stored in Orion.
3
Lateral reach — past segmentation narrative 3
Attacker
I leverage API access to deploy malware or establish persistent backdoors across monitored infrastructure.
Business
Compromised Orion instances become pivot points for enterprise-wide intrusions affecting all monitored systems.
04
What to do
— defensible action- Remediate per the vendor advisory — confirm the fixed build for your version and verify exposure.1
Say it to the boardA vulnerability with this evidence profile is a defensible budget line, not a backlog ticket — fund the change against the proof above.
05