CVE-2026-70414

Executive Summary

CVE-2026-70414 is a plaintext storage of password vulnerability (CWE-256) in Dell Command | Configure (DCC) versions prior to 5.2.3.35. A low-privileged attacker with local access to an affected system can read credentials that are stored without encryption, resulting in information disclosure of sensitive authentication material. The impact is confidentiality-only (CVSS 5.5), but disclosed credentials can enable lateral movement and privilege escalation across the Dell endpoint-management ecosystem.

Technical Analysis

Dell Command | Configure (DCC) is a Windows client-side configuration tool used by administrators to construct, apply, and package BIOS and firmware configuration settings across Dell commercial endpoints. In operation, DCC frequently consumes credentials — for example, BIOS/firmware administrator passwords used to apply protected configuration items, or credentials embedded in configuration packages and scripts.

CWE-256 (Plaintext Storage of a Password) describes a design flaw in which sensitive authentication data is persisted without cryptographic protection. Per the NVD description, DCC versions prior to 5.2.3.35 store such a password in plaintext. Because the weakness is in storage rather than transmission, the exposure surface is the local host: any file, registry location, or configuration artifact in which DCC persists the credential would be readable in cleartext.

The attack surface is local and requires only low privileges (CVSS PR:L). No user interaction is needed (UI:N) and the attack complexity is low (AC:L), which means that once an attacker has a foothold on a host with a low-privilege session — via a compromised user account, a malicious insider, or commodity malware — the plaintext credential is directly accessible without a race condition, chaining requirement, or specialized tooling. The scope is unchanged (S:U); confidentiality impact is High (C:H) because the disclosed credential may grant access to protected BIOS/firmware configuration or other systems that trust the same secret.

The NVD description does not enumerate the exact file path, registry key, or parameter name where the plaintext credential is stored, and the CNA title is empty. Those specifics are therefore not asserted here. What is derivable is the mechanism class: a credential intended to be protected is written to local storage in cleartext, and local read access to that storage yields the secret.

Exploitation Scenarios

No public proof-of-concept, Nuclei template, or exploit code is available for CVE-2026-70414. The attack chain below is inferred strictly from the vulnerability class (CWE-256) and the CVSS vector, not from any disclosed implementation detail.

1. Reconnaissance / target identification. The attacker obtains low-privileged local access to a host running Dell Command | Configure prior to 5.2.3.35. Identification can be performed by enumerating installed Dell endpoint-management software and its version. This is a post-foothold scenario: the attacker is already operating on the host (for example, through a phished user account, an unpatched workstation, or an insider with legitimate but limited access).

2. Triggering the flaw class. Because the affected version stores a password in plaintext, the attacker locates the DCC-managed storage artifact that contains the credential. No exploit primitive, injection, or memory corruption is required — the vulnerability is a storage weakness, so the "trigger" is simply reading a local artifact that the low-privileged user can access. The specific artifact location is not disclosed in the available description and is not asserted here.

3. Payload / execution method. At the vulnerability-class level, the operation is a local file/registry read. There is no remote payload delivery and no code execution component. The attacker extracts the cleartext password from wherever DCC persists it. If the credential is captured in a configuration package or log, copying that artifact off the host accomplishes the same result.

4. Post-exploitation impact. The recovered credential is used to authenticate to whatever protected surface it governs — most plausibly protected BIOS/firmware configuration items on the Dell endpoint, or any downstream system that trusts the same password. This can allow an attacker to modify firmware/BIOS settings, disable security controls, or move laterally into fleet-management workflows if the credential is reused. The direct CVSS impact is information disclosure only (C:H/I:N/A:N); any escalation of impact depends on what the disclosed credential unlocks.

Impact Assessment

The CVSS 3.1 base score is 5.5 (Medium), with vector CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N. Breaking this down:

• AV:L (Local): Exploitation requires local access to the affected host. This constrains remote exploitation but is a low bar for an attacker who already has any user-level foothold.
• AC:L (Low): No special conditions, timing, or bypass techniques are needed. The credential is simply present in plaintext.
• PR:L (Low): A low-privileged user — not an administrator — can read the exposed credential. This makes the flaw valuable in privilege-escalation and lateral-movement chains.
• UI:N (None): No victim action is required.
• S:U (Unchanged): The compromised component (DCC on the local host) does not itself grant control over other components as part of the scored impact.
• C:H (High confidentiality): The disclosed password is sensitive authentication material. Its exposure directly violates confidentiality.
• I:N / A:N: No integrity or availability impact is scored directly; any integrity impact would follow from the attacker using the recovered credential, which is outside the base score.

Business impact: Fleets of Dell commercial endpoints are commonly managed with Dell Command | Configure and related Dell Client Command Suite tooling. A plaintext credential in DCC storage affects every host where the prereq version is installed and a credential has been persisted. In regulated or high-security environments, exposure of BIOS/firmware administrator credentials is significant because those credentials protect the hardware root of trust for endpoint configuration. Organizations should treat this as a credential-compromise event: rotating the affected password is mandatory, not optional.

Blast radius: Bounded per host for initial discovery (local read), but the disclosed secret may be reused across an entire managed fleet. If administrators use a common BIOS/firmware password across all Dell endpoints (a widespread operational practice), a single host compromise can expose the credential for the whole estate.

Detection Guidance

Detection must focus on unauthorized local reads of DCC credential artifacts and on suspicious invocation of Dell Command | Configure tooling by non-administrative users. Because the specific on-disk path is not disclosed, the rules below target process execution, file access patterns around Dell Client Command Suite components, and credential-material strings.

Sigma Rule

title: Potential Dell Command Configure Plaintext Credential Access (CVE-2026-70414)
id: 8f2c1b6e-4a7d-4f9a-b3c2-1e5d6a7b8c90
status: experimental
description: Detects suspicious local access to Dell Command | Configure artifacts by low-privileged users, consistent with CWE-256 plaintext password disclosure.
references:
  - https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-70414
author: valtersit.com
date: 2026-01-01
tags:
  - attack.credential_access
  - attack.t1552
logsource:
  category: file_access
  product: windows
detection:
  selection_process:
    Image|contains:
      - 'Dell Command'
      - 'dcu'
      - 'cctk'
  selection_read:
    TargetFilename|contains:
      - 'Dell'
      - 'Command | Configure'
  condition: selection_process and selection_read
falsepositives:
  - Legitimate administrative use of Dell Command | Configure
  - IT automation tooling reading DCC configuration
level: medium

YARA Rule

rule CVE_2026_70414_Dell_DCC_Plaintext_Password
{
    meta:
        description = "Detects Dell Command | Configure configuration artifacts that may contain plaintext-stored passwords (CWE-256)"
        author = "valtersit.com"
        reference = "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-70414"
        date = "2026-01-01"
        severity = "medium"

    strings:
        $dcc1 = "Dell Command | Configure" ascii wide nocase
        $dcc2 = "Command | Configure" ascii wide nocase
        $pw1  = "Password" ascii wide nocase
        $pw2  = "BIOSPassword" ascii wide nocase

    condition:
        filesize < 5MB and
        (any of ($dcc*)) and
        (any of ($pw*))
}

Suricata IDS Rule

alert tcp $HOME_NET any -> $EXTERNAL_NET any (msg:"CVE-2026-70414 Potential Dell Command Configure Credential Exfiltration"; flow:to_server,established; content:"Dell Command | Configure"; nocase; http_header; content:"Password"; nocase; http_header; threshold:type limit, track by_src, count 1, seconds 300; classtype:attempted-recon; sid:202670414; rev:1;)

Elastic Detection

process where event.type == "start" and
  process.name : ("cctk.exe", "dcu-cli.exe") and
  process.parent.name : ("cmd.exe", "powershell.exe", "wscript.exe", "cscript.exe") and
  not user.name : ("SYSTEM", "Administrator")

Splunk SPL Query

index=windows (EventCode=4688 OR EventCode=4663)
| where (Image="*cctk.exe" OR Image="*dcu-cli.exe" OR ObjectName="*Dell*Command*Configure*")
| stats count values(Image) as images values(ObjectName) as objects by user, host
| where count > 0

Wazuh OSSEC Rule

<group name="windows,credential_access,">
  <rule id="100414" level="10">
    <if_sid>60000</if_sid>
    <field name="win.eventdata.image">cctk.exe|dcu-cli.exe</field>
    <description>CVE-2026-70414: Possible unauthorized access to Dell Command Configure credential artifacts</description>
    <mitre>
      <id>T1552</id>
    </mitre>
  </rule>
</group>

Mitigation & Patch Guidance

Patch confidence: 0/4 (UNPATCHED — no patch evidence from any tracked source).

1) Immediate mitigations

• Treat any credential previously stored by Dell Command | Configure (prior to 5.2.3.35) as compromised. Rotate the affected password, prioritizing BIOS/firmware administrator passwords across the Dell fleet.
• Restrict local access to DCC configuration artifacts using file-system ACLs so that only administrative accounts can read them.
• Remove or securely wipe any configuration packages, scripts, or logs that may contain the plaintext credential.
• Reduce the population of users with local interactive logon rights on hosts running DCC.

2) Patch/upgrade steps

• Upgrade Dell Command | Configure to version 5.2.3.35 or later, as identified in the NVD description. No vendor advisory URL was provided in the supplied data; verify the version and download directly from Dell's official support site.
• Because no patch evidence is available from tracked sources, confirm the fixed release status with Dell support before relying on the upgrade to remediate the storage behavior.
• After upgrading, rotate credentials again and confirm that newly stored secrets are protected.

3) Long-term hardening

• Eliminate the storage of reusable passwords in cleartext by adopting tools that support secure credential handling (for example, integration with a secrets manager or OS credential store) where the product allows.
• Avoid shared BIOS/firmware passwords across fleets; use unique per-device or per-group credentials to limit blast radius.
• Enforce least privilege and monitor for low-privileged processes reading Dell management artifacts (see Detection Guidance).
• Maintain an inventory of Dell Client Command Suite components and versions to ensure timely patching.

References

• NVD — CVE-2026-70414: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-70414
• MITRE CWE-256 — Plaintext Storage of a Password: https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/256.html
• Dell Command | Configure product documentation and downloads: https://www.dell.com/support
• MITRE ATT&CK T1552 — Unsecured Credentials: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1552/
• CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog (CVE-2026-70414 not listed as of this report): https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog

No public proof-of-concept, Nuclei template, or exploit code is available for CVE-2026-70414, and no threat actor campaign or exploit-in-the-wild evidence has been identified. The EPSS score has not yet been assigned by FIRST.org.