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ConnexApplication · Medhost

CVE-2017-11743

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.0 Published 2017-07-31
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
MEDHOST Connex contains a hard-coded Mirth Connect admin credential that is used for customer Mirth Connect management access. An attacker with knowledge of the hard-coded credential and the ability to communicate directly with the Mirth Connect management console may be able to intercept sensitive patient information. The admin account password is hard-coded as $K8t1ng throughout the application, and is the same across all installations. Customers do not have the option to change the Mirth Connect admin account password. The Mirth Connect admin account is created during the Connex install. The plaintext account password is hard-coded multiple times in the Connex install and update scripts.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · high confidence

MEDHOST Connex contains a hard-coded Mirth Connect admin credential ($K8t1ng) embedded in installation and update scripts. The same password is used across all installations and cannot be changed by customers, allowing attackers with knowledge of this credential and network access to the Mirth Connect management console to intercept sensitive patient data.

MitigationImplement network segmentation and firewall rules to restrict access to the Mirth Connect management console to authorized internal systems only. Monitor for unauthorized access attempts. Contact MEDHOST for a vendor patch that removes hard-coded credentials and allows password changes.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
ConnexApplication
Affected:all versions

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Locate the hardcoded credential in installation files
    Search all installation scripts, update scripts, and configuration files in the MEDHOST Connex installation directory for the string '$K8t1ng'. Use grep or a file content search tool to scan scripts with extensions such as .sh, .bat, .ps1, .xml, and .properties.
    Affected if The string '$K8t1ng' is found in any installation, update, or configuration script within the product directory.
  2. Identify Mirth Connect management console exposure
    Check network accessibility of the Mirth Connect management console. Common default ports are 8080 and 8443. Use netstat, firewall rules, or a port scan from an external system to determine if these ports are listening on interfaces accessible from outside the local host.
    Affected if The Mirth Connect management console ports (8080/8443) are accessible from network segments that contain untrusted or unauthorized systems.
  3. Verify Mirth Connect admin account configuration
    Access the Mirth Connect administrator interface or examine its user configuration database/file. Attempt to authenticate using the hardcoded credential '$K8t1ng' with the admin username, or inspect user configuration files for stored password hashes.
    Affected if The admin account can be accessed using the hardcoded credential '$K8t1ng', or the password hash in the configuration matches the hash of this known credential.
  4. Review script files for embedded credentials
    Examine all scripts in the MEDHOST Connex installation directory, particularly those in 'scripts', 'bin', 'install', or 'update' subdirectories. Look for cleartext password strings or base64-encoded credentials in shell scripts, batch files, and XML configuration files.
    Affected if Any script file contains a hardcoded password value that cannot be changed through the product's administrative interface.

The environment is affected if the hardcoded credential '$K8t1ng' is present in installation/update scripts or if the Mirth Connect management console is accessible with this credential.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

From vendor data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Implement network segmentation and firewall rules to restrict access to the Mirth Connect management console to authorized internal systems only. Monitor for unauthorized access attempts. Contact MEDHOST for a vendor patch that removes hard-coded credentials and allows password changes.

Fix this in Connex Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation8.0 h
  • Implementation12.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
30.0 hours of engineering $5,380
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2017-11743 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

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What belongs here
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  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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