We show that the Kashiwara–Vergne (KV) problem for quadratic Lie algebras (that is, Lie algebras admitting an invariant scalar product) reduces to the problem of representing the Campbell–Hausdorff series in the form ln(exey)=x+y+[x,a(x,y)]+[y,b(x,y)], where a(x,y) and b(x,y) are Lie series in x and y. This observation explains the existence of explicit rational solutions of the quadratic KV problem, whereas constructing an explicit rational solution of the full KV problem would probably require the knowledge of a rational Drinfeld associator. It also gives, in the case of quadratic Lie algebras, a direct proof of the Duflo theorem (implied by the KV problem).