Introduction

Imagine walking up to a bank vault, turning the handle, and finding it unlocked. No alarms, no guards—just free access. That’s exactly what happened when I discovered default credentials (admin:admin) working on redacted.com, a corporate domain that should have been secure.

Because of security reasons i will refer domain name to redacted.com

This wasn’t a sophisticated cyberattack. It was a simple, glaring oversight—one that could have led to data breaches, RCE, or worse

In this post, I’ll Walk you through:

• How I found the vulnerability (with screenshots).

• Why default credentials are still a massive risk in 2025

• How to protect your systems from this rookie mistake

Let’s dive in ....

The Discovery: A Two-Minute "Hack"

Step 1: The Suspicious Login Page

While testing redacted.com as part of a bug bounty program, I noticed their is a Apache superset running on port 9000 had a generic login page—no CAPTCHA, no rate limiting, just a username and password field

🚩 Red flag #1: The page looked like a default vendor template.

Step 2: Trying the Unthinkable

Most hackers start with complex exploits. I decided to try the easiest attack possible:

Username: admin

Password: admin

I hit Enter—and the page loaded

🚩 Red flag #2: No 2FA, no lockout policy. Just full access.

Step 3: Inside the Admin Panel

Once logged in, I had complete control over:

• HR Analytics

• Employees Record

• Management Dashboard

There is functionality to run SQL queries and got all data from dashboard

Why Default Credentials Are Still a Problem in 2025

You’d think companies would learn by now, but default credentials remain one of the top causes of breaches. Here’s why:

1. Laziness in Deployement

2. Overconfidence in Security

3. Vendor Negligence

How to Protect Your Systems

• Change Default Credentials Immediately

• Enforce Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)

• Monitor Login Attempts

• Regular Security Audits