Cyber Resilience

CVE-2022-38337

Critical

Published: 06 December 2022

Published
06 December 2022
Modified
24 April 2025
KEV Added
Patch
CVSS Score v3.1 9.1 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0045 64.1th percentile
Risk Priority 18 60% EPSS · 20% KEV · 20% CVSS

Summary

CVE-2022-38337 is a critical-severity Use of Hard-coded Credentials (CWE-798) vulnerability in Mobatek Mobaxterm. Its CVSS base score is 9.1 (Critical).

Operationally, ranked in the top 35.9% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability details

When aborting a SFTP connection, MobaXterm before v22.1 sends a hardcoded password to the server. The server treats this as an invalid login attempt which can result in a Denial of Service (DoS) for the user if services like fail2ban…

more

are used.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

No named actor attribution yet. ATT&CK technique mapping in progress for this CVE.

Affected Assets

mobatek
mobaxterm
≤ 22.2

Mitigating Controls

Likely Mitigating Controls AI

Per-CVE control mapping for this CVE has not run yet; the list below is derived from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry.

addresses: CWE-798

Enables users to notice when hard-coded credentials have been exploited for unauthorized access.

addresses: CWE-798

Security training explicitly warns against hard-coded credentials, lowering their use in systems.

addresses: CWE-798

Policy and procedures prohibit hard-coded credentials in favor of managed authentication.

addresses: CWE-798

External identity providers eliminate the need for hard-coded credentials in applications.

addresses: CWE-798

Changing default authenticators prior to first use and protecting content prevents use of hard-coded credentials.

addresses: CWE-798

Central credential stores and rotation policies remove the need for hard-coded credentials in configuration files or code.

addresses: CWE-798

Intelligence programs surface reports of campaigns that abuse hard-coded credentials in products, prompting removal or replacement and thereby reducing successful exploitation.

addresses: CWE-798

Planned investment enables secure credential storage and management systems instead of hard-coded credentials.

References