CVE-2018-16791
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedIn SolarWinds SFTP/SCP Server through 2018-09-10, the configuration file is world readable and writable, and stores user passwords in an insecure manner, allowing an attacker to determine passwords for potentially privileged accounts. This also grants the attacker an ability to backdoor the server.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · high confidenceSolarWinds SFTP/SCP Server stores user credentials in a configuration file with world-readable and world-writable permissions. Passwords are stored insecurely (likely plaintext or weakly hashed), allowing any local user or attacker who can read the file to obtain credentials for privileged accounts. The writable permission additionally permits attackers to modify the configuration to backdoor the server.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data<= 20180910CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify if SolarWinds SFTP/SCP Server is installedCheck for the presence of SolarWinds SFTP/SCP Server software on the system. Look for service processes or installed program directories related to SolarWinds SFTP or SCP.Affected if SolarWinds SFTP/SCP Server version 20180910 or earlier is installed on the system
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Locate the user configuration fileFind the configuration file that stores user account credentials for the SolarWinds SFTP/SCP Server. This is typically located in the application data directory or configuration folder.Affected if A configuration file containing user credentials exists and is accessible
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Check configuration file permissionsInspect the file permissions on the configuration file using system commands (such as ls -la on Linux or icacls on Windows) to determine if the file is world-readable or world-writable.Affected if The configuration file has permissions allowing read or write access by any user on the system (world-readable or world-writable)
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Verify password storage methodExamine the contents of the configuration file to determine how user passwords are stored - look for whether they appear in plaintext, weakly hashed, or use insecure encoding.Affected if Passwords are stored in plaintext, weakly hashed, or otherwise insecurely encoded within the configuration file
A user is affected if SolarWinds SFTP/SCP Server version 20180910 or earlier is installed and its configuration file containing user credentials has world-readable or world-writable permissions, with passwords stored insecurely.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataRestrict configuration file permissions to admin/root-only access, migrate to secure password hashing, audit for compromised accounts, and update to a patched version if available.
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation6.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $3,984.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2018-16791 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2018-16791 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.
- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
- No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data