CVE-2018-18995
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 · uneditedPluto Safety PLC Gateway Ethernet devices ABB GATE-E1 and GATE-E2 all versions do not allow authentication to be configured on administrative telnet or web interfaces, which could enable various effects vectors, including conducting device resets, reading or modifying registers, and changing configuration settings such as IP addresses.
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 confidenceThe ABB GATE-E1 and GATE-E2 Pluto Safety PLC Gateway Ethernet devices expose administrative telnet and web interfaces that cannot have authentication configured, allowing unauthenticated remote attackers to reset the device, read or modify registers, and change configuration settings including IP addresses.
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 dataall versionsall versionsCVSS 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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify device modelDetermine if the target device is an ABB GATE-E1 or GATE-E2 Pluto Safety PLC Gateway by checking the device label, SNMP sysDescr, or via network discovery showing the product nameAffected if Device is confirmed to be an ABB GATE-E1 or GATE-E2 gateway
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Check for exposed telnet interfaceAttempt to connect to the device on telnet ports (23/tcp or 992/tcp) using a telnet client or netcatAffected if Telnet connection succeeds and presents a device prompt without requiring any login credentials
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Check for exposed web interfaceAccess the device IP on HTTP ports (80/tcp, 8080/tcp, or 443/tcp for HTTPS) using a web browserAffected if Web interface loads and provides administrative access without prompting for any username or password
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Verify no authentication mechanism existsAttempt to access administrative functions (device configuration, register read/write, reset options) through both telnet and web interfaces without providing credentialsAffected if Administrative functions are fully accessible without any authentication requirement, confirming the authentication bypass condition described in the CVE
If the device is an ABB GATE-E1 or GATE-E2 and either the telnet or web management interface is accessible without requiring credentials, the environment is affected by this vulnerability.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
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.
dbcve · scopedImmediately isolate affected devices behind network segmentation or firewalls to block unauthorized access, and contact ABB for firmware updates that add authentication capabilities.
GATE-E1 firmware version 3.0.0 or later; GATE-E2 firmware version 3.0.0 or later
- Contact ABB Technical Support to obtain firmware version 3.0.0 or later for both GATE-E1 and GATE-E2 devices
- Download the firmware update from an authorized ABB source following their standard update procedure
- Apply the firmware update to the affected GATE-E1 and GATE-E2 devices
- After updating, verify that authentication is now required for both telnet and web administrative interfaces
- Confirm that unauthenticated access is no longer possible by attempting to access interfaces without credentials
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation6.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2018-18995 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2018-18995 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- 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
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