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CVE-2022-25217· NVD / CVE Program· CNA tenable

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

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.

HighCVSS 7.8 · v3.1—No exploit No fix recorded
Published
Mar 10, 2022
Updated
Jun 17, 2026
EPSS
0.3% · 24th percentile
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JSON

Action score

31

Monitor

Low priority for now.

CVSS
31 / 40 · 7.8 / 10
CISA KEV
0 / 30 · Not listed
EPSS
0 / 30 · 0.3%

Affected systems

VendorProduct
phicommk2 firmware
phicommk2
phicommk3c firmware
phicommk3c

Affected versions

NVD version ranges (for catalog products). Add the product to your stack with a version and matching uses these.

  • phicomm k2 firmwareup to 22.5.9.163 inclusive
  • phicomm k3c firmwareup to 32.1.15.93 inclusive

Versions reported by the vendor

Affected version ranges reported by the assigning authority (tenable). Independent of NVD's CPE analysis and usually ahead of it.

  • n/a Phicomm Routers

    • K2 22.5.9.163, K3 21.5.37.246, K3C 32.1.15.93 -- 32.1.26.175, K3C 33.1.25.177, K2P 20.4.1.7, K2 A7 22.6.506.28affected

Other highest-scoring records for the same primary product.

  • CVE-2022-25219A null byte interaction error has been discovered in the code that the telnetd_startup daemon uses to construct a pair of ephemeral password
    33Monitor
  • CVE-2022-25218The use of the RSA algorithm without OAEP, or any other padding scheme, in telnetd_startup, allows an unauthenticated attacker on the local
    32Monitor
  • CVE-2023-40796Phicomm k2 v22.6.529.216 was discovered to contain a command injection vulnerability via the function luci.sys.call.
    31Monitor
  • CVE-2022-48072Phicomm K2G v22.6.3.20 was discovered to contain a command injection vulnerability via the autoUpTime parameter in the automatic upgrade fun
    31Monitor
  • CVE-2022-48070Phicomm K2 v22.6.534.263 was discovered to contain a command injection vulnerability via the autoUpTime parameter in the automatic upgrade f
    31Monitor
  • CVE-2022-48073Phicomm K2G v22.6.3.20 was discovered to store the root and admin passwords in plaintext.
    30Monitor

Remediation

Which version to upgrade to

Fix versions compiled from the vendor, package registries and Microsoft. Verify the vendor's note before upgrading.

No fix version is recorded for this entry. Check the references for vendor advisories.

Exploit status

No known public exploit

No public exploit has been observed yet. That doesn't mean you're safe, only that the bar is a little higher.

Research context

For pentesters and researchers: attack profile, score disagreement, timeline, patch commits, credits, variant and chain candidates, bug bounty scope. All derived from existing data; no exploit code.

Timeline

From publication to today: proof of concept, Metasploit module, CISA KEV and fix record. Dates are as reported by the sources.

No dated events beyond publication.

EPSS, last 120 days

FIRST EPSS daily score; only changes of 0.01 or more are recorded (step chart).

Patch and commit links

Commit, PR and diff links among the references. A starting point for patch-diffing and variant hunting; fixes, not exploits.

No commit or PR link among the references.

Finders, reporters and analysts named in the CNA record. Click a name for that researcher’s other records.

No credits in the CNA record.

Variant candidates

Same product, same weakness class, within 18 months. If the patch missed the root cause, the sibling bug is here.

No nightly-computed relations.

Chain candidates

An authentication bypass and a privilege-requiring bug in the same product, published close together: combined they may become an unauthenticated path.

—

Bug bounty scope

No known public program.

Source: bounty-targets-data (public HackerOne, Bugcrowd, Intigriti, YesWeHack listings).

Technical details

Attack conditions

  • Someone with local access to the system can trigger it.
  • A low-privileged account is enough.
  • No user action is required.
  • No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.

If successful

Confidentiality
high · data can be read
Integrity
high · data or configuration can be modified
Availability
high · the service can be disrupted
Attack vector
Local
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality impact
High
Integrity impact
High
Availability impact
High

CVSS vector

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

nvd-primary

Root cause

For convenience in support or manufacturing, an account that is identical on every device is embedded in the software. Credentials learned from one device work on all of them.

A representative example of this vulnerability class. Not the vendor's source code; it shows the faulty pattern and its fix.

Vulnerable

ts
const SUPPORT_USER = "support";const SUPPORT_PASS = "hardcoded-password";

Fixed

ts
const creds = await provisioning.deviceCredentials(deviceId);if (creds.mustRotate) await forcePasswordChange(deviceId);

Attack context

MITRE CAPEC attack patterns and ATT&CK techniques for this weakness class (CWE). A starting point for detection rules and threat hunting.

Noroxi analysis

No Noroxi analysis for this record yet

We don't hand-write analysis for all 385,000+ vulnerabilities; that wouldn't be honest. For notable, high-impact vulnerabilities our team writes the mechanism, detection and remediation steps.

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Change log

No changes recorded on tracked fields yet. Score, KEV, exploit maturity and fix status changes appear here.

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