Eaton Power Xpert Meter 4000, 6000, and 8000 devices before 13.4.0.10 have a single SSH private key across different customers' installations and do not properly restrict access to this key, which makes it easier for remote attackers to perform SSH logins (to uid 0) via the PubkeyAuthentication option.
Conclusion & alert: CVE-2018-16158 is rated High Exploit Risk (87.9/100): CVSS Critical severity, with high exploitation likelihood (EPSS 70.01%, 99th percentile). Core evidence: 2 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). Mandatory action: Public exploits are available—assess exposure, apply mitigations, and prioritize patching.
Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.
| EDB-ID | Source | Kind | Published | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | nvd_ref | exploit_tag | Exploit-DB ↗ | |
| — | nvd_ref | exploit_tag | Exploit-DB ↗ |
EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).
| # | Date | Old EPSS score | New EPSS score | Delta (New - Old) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2026-03-16 | 70.81% | 70.01% | -0.80% |
| 2 | 2025-11-21 | 62.92% | 70.81% | +7.88% |
| 3 | 2025-11-18 | — | 62.92% | — |
Full EPSS history (23 records total)
CVSS metrics for this CVE.
| Base score | Version | Severity | Vector | Exploitability | Impact | Score source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9.8 | 3.0 | CRITICAL |
|
3.9 | 5.9 | [email protected] |
| 10.0 | 2.0 | HIGH |
|
10.0 | 10.0 | [email protected] |
| Vendor | Product | Version | Raw CPE |
|---|---|---|---|
| eaton | power_xpert_meter_4000_firmware | < 13.4.0.10 | cpe:2.3:o:eaton:power_xpert_meter_4000_firmware:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| eaton | power_xpert_meter_6000_firmware | < 13.4.0.10 | cpe:2.3:o:eaton:power_xpert_meter_6000_firmware:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| eaton | power_xpert_meter_8000_firmware | < 13.4.0.10 | cpe:2.3:o:eaton:power_xpert_meter_8000_firmware:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| URL | Tags |
|---|---|
| http://www.eaton.com/content/dam/eaton/company/news-insights/cybersecurity/security-bulletins/PXM-Advisory.pdf | Vendor Advisory |
| https://www.ctrlu.net/vuln/0006.html | Exploit Third Party Advisory |
| https://github.com/BrianWGray/msf/blob/master/exploits/linux/ssh/eaton_known_privkey.rb | Exploit Third Party Advisory |