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CriticalCISA KEVExploited in the wildPublic exploit

Hardcoded Credential in Dell RecoverPoint for Virtual Machines Tomcat Manager

IdentifiersCVE-2026-22769CWE-798· Use of Hard-coded Credentials

CVE-2026-22769 is a critical hardcoded credential vulnerability in Dell RecoverPoint for Virtual Machines affecting versions prior to 6.0.3.1 HF1. The issue stems from hard-coded administrative credentials for the Apache Tomcat Manager component stored in the appliance configuration (reported in tomcat-users.xml under the RecoverPoint appliance filesystem). An unauthenticated remote attacker who knows the embedded credential can authenticate to the Tomcat Manager interface and abuse the /manager/text/deploy endpoint to upload a malicious WAR archive. Observed exploitation used this mechanism to deploy the SLAYSTYLE web shell, after which attackers were able to execute commands as root on the appliance and establish persistence. Public reporting also ties exploitation to deployment of BRICKSTORM and GRIMBOLT malware and modification of startup-related scripts for persistence.

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ANALYST BRIEF

Impact, mitigation & remediation

What it means. What to do now. Patch path, mitigations, and the assume-compromise checklist.

Impact

What an attacker gets, and what they’ve been doing with it.

Successful exploitation can give an unauthenticated remote attacker unauthorized access to the underlying RecoverPoint appliance operating system with root-level execution and persistence. This enables full compromise of confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the appliance, including deployment of web shells and backdoors, long-term persistence, lateral movement, and potential pivoting into connected VMware backup, recovery, and virtual infrastructure. Because RecoverPoint for Virtual Machines operates in backup and disaster recovery workflows, compromise can also undermine restoration capability, expose replicated data, and facilitate broader enterprise intrusion.

Mitigation

If you can’t patch tonight, do this now.

If immediate upgrade is not possible, apply Dell’s remediation script from DSA-2026-079 as an urgent interim measure. Restrict RecoverPoint for Virtual Machines to trusted, access-controlled internal networks only; do not expose it to untrusted or public networks. Enforce firewalling and segmentation around the appliance, restrict access to Tomcat Manager and recovery infrastructure, and monitor for suspicious requests to /manager and WAR deployment activity. Because exploitation has been active in the wild, organizations should also hunt for post-compromise artifacts such as unexpected WAR files, modified startup scripts, web shells, and related malware rather than assuming patching alone is sufficient.

Remediation

Patch, then assume compromise.

Upgrade Dell RecoverPoint for Virtual Machines to version 6.0.3.1 HF1 or later. Dell also provided a vendor remediation script referenced in advisory DSA-2026-079 for environments that cannot immediately upgrade. For older affected 5.3 releases, Dell guidance indicates upgrading to a supported release before applying the final fixed version or remediation path. Given confirmed in-the-wild exploitation, remediation should be paired with incident response review to determine whether compromise occurred prior to patching.
PUBLIC EXPLOITS

Exploits

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VALID 0 / 0 TOTALView more in app

No public exploit code observed for this vulnerability.

EXPOSURE SURFACE

Affected products & vendors

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VendorProductType
Dell TechnologiesRecoverpoint For Virtual Machinesapplication

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Exposure mapping

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Threat actor evidence38

Every observed campaign linking this CVE to a named adversary.

Associated malware68

Malware families riding this exploit, with evidence and IOCs.

Detection signatures1

YARA, Sigma, Snort, and vendor rules, auto-deployed to your SIEM.

Vendor-by-vendor mapping

Cross-references every affected SKU, including bundled OEM variants.

Social activity128

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