dbcve.org
Ace1000 FirmwareOperating system · Motorola

CVE-2022-30271

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2022-07-26
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
The Motorola ACE1000 RTU through 2022-05-02 ships with a hardcoded SSH private key and initialization scripts (such as /etc/init.d/sshd_service) only generate a new key if no private-key file exists. Thus, this hardcoded key is likely to be used by default.

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

The Motorola ACE1000 RTU ships with a hardcoded SSH private key embedded in the firmware. The device's SSH initialization scripts (/etc/init.d/sshd_service) only generate a new key if no existing private-key file is detected, meaning the factory-default hardcoded key persists and is used by default. An attacker with knowledge of this key can authenticate to any affected device via SSH without credentials.

MitigationImmediately restrict network access to the ACE1000 RTU behind a firewall, contact Motorola for a firmware update that replaces the hardcoded key, and generate new SSH host keys if the device supports rekeying. Implement compensating controls such as network segmentation and IPS rules to detect brute-force or key-based attacks.

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
Ace1000 FirmwareOperating system
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:3.1/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 device model
    Identify if the target device is a Motorola ACE1000 RTU by checking the device label, management interface, or SNMP/sysinfo output for the exact model name
    Affected if Device is a Motorola ACE1000 RTU
  2. Verify SSH service is enabled
    Check if SSH (port 22) is listening on the device via network scan or by accessing the device console and running a command like 'netstat -tlnp' or 'ss -tlnp' to list listening services
    Affected if SSH daemon is running and accessible on the device
  3. Check if factory SSH host keys exist
    On the device console, list the contents of /etc/ssh/ or /etc/ directory for SSH host key files (ssh_host_rsa_key, ssh_host_dsa_key, etc.). If these files exist and were never regenerated, they may be the factory default keys
    Affected if SSH host key files exist and were present from factory without regeneration
  4. Inspect SSH service initialization script
    Examine the file /etc/init.d/sshd_service on the device (if accessible via console or firmware extraction) to confirm the startup logic only generates keys when no existing key file is found
    Affected if The script contains logic that skips key generation if any host key file already exists
  5. Assess network exposure of SSH service
    Determine if the device SSH port (22/tcp) is accessible from untrusted networks by reviewing firewall rules, ACLs, or performing external port scans from outside the trusted network segment
    Affected if SSH service is reachable from networks outside the trusted management or control network

If the device is a Motorola ACE1000 RTU with SSH enabled and the host keys were never regenerated (factory keys still in place), and SSH is accessible from an untrusted network, the device is affected by this vulnerability.

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

Immediately restrict network access to the ACE1000 RTU behind a firewall, contact Motorola for a firmware update that replaces the hardcoded key, and generate new SSH host keys if the device supports rekeying. Implement compensating controls such as network segmentation and IPS rules to detect brute-force or key-based attacks.

Fix this in Ace1000 Firmware Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation8.0 h
  • Implementation12.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
28.0 hours of engineering $5,080
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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-2022-30271 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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