CVE-2022-36958 is a high-severity vulnerability identified in the SolarWinds Platform, categorized under CWE-502: Deserialization of Untrusted Data. This vulnerability arises when the application deserializes data from an untrusted source without sufficient validation or sanitization, allowing an attacker to manipulate serialized objects to execute arbitrary code. Specifically, this flaw permits a remote adversary who already has valid access credentials to the SolarWinds Web Console to execute arbitrary commands on the underlying system. The vulnerability does not require user interaction and can be exploited remotely over the network, with low attack complexity and privileges required limited to authenticated users. The CVSS v3.1 base score of 8.8 reflects the critical impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability, as successful exploitation could lead to full system compromise, data exfiltration, or disruption of network management operations. Although the affected versions are unspecified, the vulnerability affects the SolarWinds Platform, a widely deployed IT infrastructure management solution. No public exploits have been reported in the wild as of the publication date, but the nature of the vulnerability and the criticality of the platform make it a high-risk issue that requires immediate attention.

For European organizations, the impact of CVE-2022-36958 can be significant due to the widespread use of SolarWinds products in enterprise IT environments, including government agencies, critical infrastructure providers, and large corporations. Exploitation could lead to unauthorized command execution on systems responsible for network monitoring and management, potentially allowing attackers to disrupt IT operations, exfiltrate sensitive data, or move laterally within networks. Given the platform’s role in managing complex IT environments, a successful attack could degrade service availability, compromise data integrity, and expose confidential information. This is particularly concerning for sectors with stringent regulatory requirements such as finance, healthcare, and public administration in Europe, where data breaches or service outages can result in severe legal and financial consequences. The requirement for valid credentials limits the attack surface but does not eliminate risk, especially in environments where credential theft or insider threats are possible.

Mitigation should focus on immediate patching once SolarWinds releases an official update addressing this vulnerability. In the absence of a patch, organizations should implement strict access controls to limit who can authenticate to the SolarWinds Web Console, enforce strong multi-factor authentication (MFA), and monitor for unusual activity indicative of exploitation attempts. Network segmentation should be employed to isolate the SolarWinds management infrastructure from sensitive or critical systems to contain potential breaches. Additionally, organizations should audit and rotate credentials regularly, implement robust logging and alerting for command execution events, and conduct thorough vulnerability assessments and penetration testing focused on deserialization issues. Employing application-layer firewalls or runtime application self-protection (RASP) solutions that can detect and block malicious deserialization payloads may provide additional defense-in-depth. Finally, educating administrators about the risks of deserialization vulnerabilities and the importance of credential security is essential.