# CVE-2022-29186: Use of Hard-coded Cryptographic Key in rundeck/rundeck, rundeckpro/enterprise

> Attackers can gain unauthorized SSH access to remote hosts if they use the pre-generated SSH keypair included in the Rundeck Docker image.

- **Severity:** Critical 9.1 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 20 May 2022
- **Updated:** 23 Apr 2025
- **Also known as:** GHSA-qxjx-xr2m-hgqx

## What is CVE-2022-29186?

CVE-2022-29186 is a critical vulnerability in rundeck, published on 20 May 2022. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Rundeck is an open source automation service with a web console, command line tools and a WebAPI. Rundeck community and rundeck-enterprise docker images contained a pre-generated SSH keypair. If the id_rsa.pub public key of the keypair was copied to authorized_keys files on remote host, those hosts would allow access to anyone with the exposed private credentials. This misconfiguration only impacts Rundeck Docker instances of PagerDuty® Process Automation On Prem (formerly Rundeck) version 4.0 and earlier, not Debian, RPM or .WAR. Additionally, the id_rsa.pub file would have to be copied from the Docker image filesystem contents without overwriting it and used to configure SSH access on a host. A patch on Rundeck's `main` branch has removed the pre-generated SSH key pair, but it does not remove exposed keys that have been configured. To patch, users must run a script on hosts in their environment to search for exposed keys and rotate them. Two workarounds are available: Do not use any pre-existing public key file from the rundeck docker images to allow SSH access by adding it to authorized_keys files and, if you have copied the public key file included in the docker image, remove it from any authorized_keys files.

Weakness: CWE-798 (Use of Hard-coded Credentials), CWE-321 (Use of Hard-coded Cryptographic Key)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-29186?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Pagerduty Rundeck.

## How do I fix CVE-2022-29186?

No fix has been published for CVE-2022-29186 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2022-29186 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-29186 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in rundeck

- [CVE-2021-39132](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-39132/): YAML deserialization can run untrusted code (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2023-48222](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-48222/): Authenticated users can view or delete jobs they do not have authorization for in Rundeck (high 8.1)
- [CVE-2021-41112](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-41112/): Missing Authorization in Rundeck (high 8.1)
- [CVE-2022-31044](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-31044/): Plaintext Storage of Keys and Passwords in Rundeck and PagerDuty Process Automation (high 7.5)
- [CVE-2021-39133](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-39133/): Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) can run untrusted code on Rundeck server (high 7.2)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2022-29186 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2022-29186 is a critical vulnerability in rundeck, published on 20 May 2022. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-29186 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: rundeck. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-29186/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-29186/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2022-29186
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-29186
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2022-29186

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-29186/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.