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HighCISA KEVExploited in the wildPublic exploit

Unauthenticated DoS in SolarWinds Serv-U via deflate POST requests

IdentifiersCVE-2026-28318CWE-400· Uncontrolled Resource Consumption

CVE-2026-28318 is an unauthenticated denial-of-service vulnerability in SolarWinds Serv-U affecting versions prior to 15.5.4 Hotfix 1. According to the provided content, the flaw is caused by uncontrolled resource consumption and can be triggered by specially crafted HTTP POST requests that use the header "Content-Encoding: deflate." Successful exploitation causes the Serv-U service to crash. The issue affects SolarWinds Serv-U managed file transfer / FTP server software on supported platforms, including Windows and Linux.

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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.

A remote, unauthenticated attacker can repeatedly crash the SolarWinds Serv-U service, resulting in denial of service and interruption of file transfer functionality. Impact is limited in the provided material to service availability disruption; no evidence is provided here of code execution, privilege escalation, or data compromise from this CVE alone.

Mitigation

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

If immediate patching is not possible, apply the vendor mitigation guidance referenced in the SolarWinds Trust Center. The provided content specifically notes limiting access to known addresses and blocking POST requests containing the "Content-Encoding" header, since the vulnerable Serv-U service does not require that functionality. If mitigations cannot be implemented, CISA guidance in the provided content recommends discontinuing use of the affected product until it can be secured.

Remediation

Patch, then assume compromise.

Upgrade SolarWinds Serv-U to version 15.5.4 Hotfix 1 or later, as this release is identified in the provided content as the vendor fix for CVE-2026-28318. Organizations should prioritize patching because the vulnerability has been reported as actively exploited in the wild and added to CISA's KEV catalog.
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
SolarWindsServ-Uapplication

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What this page doesn’t show

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Threat actor evidence

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Associated malware

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Detection signatures1

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Vendor-by-vendor mapping

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Social activity12

Community discussion across Reddit, Mastodon, and other social sources.