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Fencer Vulns
critical 9.8

CVE-2018-16158 in the critical feed json

Eaton Power Xpert Meter 4000, 6000, and 8000 devices before 13.4.0.10 have a single SSH private key across different customers' installatio…

published 2018-08-30 8 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2018-8012

cvss
9.8
version 3.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
30.3%
EPSS 30.3% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 98%
public exploits
1
Metasploit

Summary

Eaton Power Xpert Meter 4000, 6000, and 8000 devices before 13.4.0.10 have a single SSH private key across different customers' installations and do not properly restrict access to this key, which makes it easier for remote attackers to perform SSH logins (to uid 0) via the PubkeyAuthentication option.

Patch / fix

  • eaton power_xpert_meter_4000_firmware 13.4.0.10
  • eaton power_xpert_meter_6000_firmware 13.4.0.10
  • eaton power_xpert_meter_8000_firmware 13.4.0.10

Timeline

  1. First public exploit (Metasploit auxiliary/scanner/ssh/eaton_xpert_backdoor)
  2. Published

Exploit prediction

30.30% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 98% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Exploits and checks

  • Metasploit auxiliary/scanner/ssh/eaton_xpert_backdoor Eaton Xpert Meter SSH Private Key Exposure Scanner metasploit auxiliary, normal rank, 2018-07-18
  • ctrlu.net https://www.ctrlu.net/vuln/0006.html referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified
  • github.com https://github.com/BrianWGray/msf/blob/master/exploits/linux/ssh/eaton_known_privkey.rb referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.0 9.8 CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 2.0 10.0 AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-798 Use of Hard-coded Credentials

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.