CVE-2018-10575

published 2018-04-30

CVE-2018-10575: An issue was discovered on WatchGuard AP100, AP102, and AP200 devices with firmware before 1.2.9.15. Hardcoded credentials exist for an unprivileged SSH…

Priority P2 66 critical 9.8 CVSS 3.0

AV N AC L PR N UI N S U C H I H A H

EXPLOIT

An issue was discovered on WatchGuard AP100, AP102, and AP200 devices with firmware before 1.2.9.15. Hardcoded credentials exist for an unprivileged SSH account with a shell of /bin/false.

Affected

3 ranges

Vendor	Product	Version range	Fixed in
watchguard	ap100_firmware	< 1.2.9.15	1.2.9.15
watchguard	ap102_firmware	< 1.2.9.15	1.2.9.15
watchguard	ap200_firmware	< 1.2.9.15	1.2.9.15

Detection & IOCs extracted from sources · hover to see the quote

port 443↗

path /cgi-bin/luci/↗

path /cgi-bin/luci/;{stok}/html/Status↗

path /cgi-bin/luci/;{stok}/wgupload↗

path /www/cgi-bin/payload.luci↗

path /tmp/payload↗

path /cgi-bin/payload.luci↗

cookie sysauth=<token>; serial=<serial>; filename=/tmp/payload; md5sum=fail↗

cookie sysauth=<token>; serial=<serial>; filename=/www/cgi-bin/payload.luci; md5sum=fail↗

command /bin/chmod +x /tmp/payload↗

command /tmp/payload↗

filename payload.luci↗

• → Look for HTTP requests to /cgi-bin/luci/ with AUTH_USER and AUTH_PASS headers, which are non-standard headers used by the exploit to pass hardcoded backdoor credentials. ↗
• → Detect POST requests to /cgi-bin/luci/;{stok}/wgupload with a cookie containing 'filename=' pointing to paths like /tmp/payload or /www/cgi-bin/*.luci, indicating malicious file upload via the wgupload endpoint. ↗
• → Alert on HTTP GET requests to /cgi-bin/payload.luci, which is the attacker-uploaded Lua web shell being triggered for remote code execution. ↗
• → Monitor for the default backdoor credentials: username 'admin' with password '1234' being used against the WatchGuard AP web administration interface on port 443. ↗
• → The exploit targets MIPS big-endian (MIPSBE) architecture; uploaded payloads dropped to /tmp/payload on the device will be MIPSBE ELF binaries. ↗
• → Detect SSH login attempts using an unprivileged account with shell /bin/false on WatchGuard AP100/AP102/AP200 devices — successful authentication with this account indicates use of the hardcoded backdoor credential. ↗

• · The exploit module also supports legitimate admin credentials, meaning detections based solely on credential values may produce false positives for authorized administrators. ↗
• · The vulnerability affects firmware versions before 1.2.9.15 on WatchGuard AP100, AP102, and AP200; devices running 1.2.9.15 or later are not affected by the hardcoded SSH credential issue. ↗
• · The wgupload file path and serial number are passed via cookie headers rather than POST body parameters; WAF/IDS rules inspecting only POST body will miss the malicious upload destination. ↗

CVSS provenance

nvd v3.0 9.8 CRITICAL CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

nvd v2.0 7.5 HIGH AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

CVEs like this are exactly what “Exploited This Week” covers.

Every Monday: what got weaponized or added to CISA KEV in the last seven days — each CVE cross-linked to its PoC, Nuclei template, and detection rule. Free, one email a week, unsubscribe in one click.

CWE-798