Use of hard-coded credentials in KnowledgeDeliver - CVE-2026-5426
Published: May 26, 2026
Vulnerability identifier: #VU132313
CSH Severity: Critical
CVSS v4.0: CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:U/U:Red
CVE-ID: CVE-2026-5426
CWE-ID: CWE-798
Exploitation vector: Remote access
Exploit availability:
No public exploit available
Vendor: Digital Knowledge
Affected software:
KnowledgeDeliver
KnowledgeDeliver
Detailed vulnerability description
The vulnerability allows a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code.
The vulnerability exists due to insecure use of hardcoded cryptographic keys in ASP.NET ViewState handling in the KnowledgeDeliver ASP.NET application configuration when processing a crafted __VIEWSTATE parameter in an HTTP request. A remote attacker can send a specially crafted ViewState payload to execute arbitrary code.
The issue arises because identical pre-shared ASP.NET machine keys were used across multiple customer deployments, allowing compromise of other internet-facing instances if the keys were obtained from one deployment.
Note, the vulnerability is being actively exploited in the wild.
How to mitigate CVE-2026-5426
Generate a unique, cryptographically strong machineKey for each KnowledgeDeliver instance.