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System Management ApplianceApplication · Ecos

CVE-2018-12338

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.0 Published 2018-06-17
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
Undocumented Factory Backdoor in ECOS System Management Appliance (aka SMA) 5.2.68 allows the vendor to extract confidential information and manipulate security relevant configurations via remote root SSH access.

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

ECOS System Management Appliance version 5.2.68 contains an undocumented factory backdoor that provides remote root SSH access to the vendor, allowing extraction of confidential information and manipulation of security-relevant configurations.

MitigationContact ECOS vendor for patched firmware to remove the backdoor; if unavailable, implement strict network isolation, firewall rules restricting SSH access to authorized IPs only, and monitor for unauthorized root access attempts.

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
System Management ApplianceApplication
Affected:= 5.2.68

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. Confirm appliance model and version
    Access the ECOS appliance management interface or check the system information page to identify the exact firmware version installed
    Affected if The installed version is exactly 5.2.68 (this is the only affected version for this CVE)
  2. Verify SSH service status
    Check if SSH daemon (sshd) is running on the appliance through the system services panel or by attempting to connect to port 22
    Affected if SSH service is enabled and running on the system
  3. Inspect SSH configuration
    Review the SSH server configuration file (typically /etc/ssh/sshd_config) for any non-standard settings, unexpected ListenAddress directives, or authentication methods that deviate from organizational policy
    Affected if SSH configuration contains unusual settings or allows root login with password authentication
  4. Examine SSH user accounts
    List all user accounts with shell access, particularly looking for root-level accounts or accounts added outside normal provisioning (check /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow if accessible)
    Affected if There are undocumented accounts, especially with UID 0 (root) or accounts added that were not created by your organization
  5. Review SSH authorized keys
    Check /root/.ssh/authorized_keys and similar locations for any public keys that were not explicitly provisioned by your administrative team
    Affected if Unauthorized SSH public keys exist in authorized_keys files, indicating potential backdoor access
  6. Audit SSH access logs
    Review SSH authentication logs (/var/log/auth.log or /var/log/secure) for connections from IP addresses outside your expected administrative ranges, especially successful root logins
    Affected if Logs show SSH root access from unknown or unexpected source IP addresses

The environment is affected if the ECOS System Management Appliance is running firmware version 5.2.68 and SSH service is enabled, regardless of configuration, as the backdoor is embedded in this specific version.

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

Contact ECOS vendor for patched firmware to remove the backdoor; if unavailable, implement strict network isolation, firewall rules restricting SSH access to authorized IPs only, and monitor for unauthorized root access attempts.

Fix this in System Management Appliance Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
18.0 hours of engineering $3,200
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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-2018-12338 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data