EchelonGraph verdictPlan a fixRemediate within your standard update timelines at low or medium mission impact and sooner than that at high (the SSVC decision on this page).
- •High severity, but no confirmed exploitation yet
CISA-KEV: Not listedEPSS PROB: 0.4%CVSS: 7.5Exploit: None knownExposed services: Not assessed
The following software releases have been updated to resolve this specific issue: Junos OS Evolved 21.4R3-S7-EVO, 22.2R1-EVO, 22.3R2-S2-EVO, 22.3R3-S2-EVO, 22.4R3-EVO, 23.2R2-EVO, 23.4R1-EVO, and all subsequent releases (from the CVE record's solution, Juniper Networks, Inc.) — apply it.
A Missing Release of Resource after Effective Lifetime vulnerability the xinetd process, responsible for spawning SSH daemon (sshd) instances, of Juniper Networks Junos OS Evolved allows an unauthenticated network-based attacker to cause a Denial of Service (DoS) by blocking SSH access for legitimate users. Continued receipt of these connections will create a sustained Denial of Service (DoS) condition.
The issue is triggered when a high rate of concurrent SSH requests are received and terminated in a specific way, causing xinetd to crash, and leaving defunct sshd processes. Successful exploitation of this vulnerability blocks both SSH access as well as services which rely upon SSH, such as SFTP, and Netconf over SSH.
Once the system is in this state, legitimate users will be unable to SSH to the device until service is manually restored. See WORKAROUND section below.
Administrators can monitor an increase in defunct sshd processes by utilizing the CLI command:
> show system processes | match sshd
root 25219 30901 0 Jul16 ? 00:00:00 [sshd]
This issue affects Juniper Networks Junos OS Evolved:
* All versions prior to 21.4R3-S7-EVO
* 22.3-EVO versions prior to 22.3R2-S2-EVO, 22.3R3-S2-EVO;
* 22.4-EVO versions prior to 22.4R3-EVO;
* 23.2-EVO versions prior to 23.2R2-EVO.
This issue does not affect Juniper Networks Junos OS Evolved 22.1-EVO nor 22.2-EVO.
What the EG score is made of (scorer v4.0: the three questions the 0–10 score mixes, published apart · methodology)
The EG score (7.5): severity, escalated by confirmed exploitation. This CVE's 7.5 is its impact severity (EG Severity), not escalated.
- EG Severity
- 7.5 HIGHCVSS-B, impact only: no KEV listing, EPSS or EG-KEV tier raises it.GitHub Security Advisory CVSS
- EG Likelihood
- 0.4% within 30 daysSource: FIRST EPSS (model v2026.06.15, score date 2026-10-27). FIRST's exploitation probability, not an EchelonGraph model.
- Confirmed exploitation
- None on record (CISA KEV, EG-KEV Tier 1)Reported apart from the likelihood: an observed fact, not a probability.
- EG Priority
- SSVC Track at medium mission impactTrack at low or medium mission impact; Attend at high (mission-essential systems).CISA BOD 26-04: 14 days if the affected system is publicly exposed; 60 days if it is not.Each input and its source, and whom BOD 26-04 binds: the SSVC and BOD 26-04 blocks below.
SSVC (CISA's decision table, applied by EchelonGraph)Track at low or medium mission impact; Attend at high (mission-essential systems).
The following software releases have been updated to resolve this specific issue: Junos OS Evolved 21.4R3-S7-EVO, 22.2R1-EVO, 22.3R2-S2-EVO, 22.3R3-S2-EVO, 22.4R3-EVO, 23.2R2-EVO, 23.4R1-EVO, and all subsequent releases (from the CVE record's solution, Juniper Networks, Inc.). Apply it within your standard update timelines at low or medium mission impact and sooner than that at high.
Exploitation none (CISA Vulnrichment) · Automatable yes (CISA Vulnrichment) · Technical impact partial (CISA Vulnrichment). All three are CISA's SSVC values (Vulnrichment). EchelonGraph applied CISA's decision table to them; CISA publishes SSVC inputs and the table, not a decision for each CVE. Mission impact is CISA's Mission & Well-being decision point, and only you can judge it. CISA's table makes it high when Mission Prevalence is Essential — the vulnerable component "directly provides capabilities that constitute at least one MEF for at least one entity" (MEF: mission essential function) — or when Public Well-Being Impact is Irreversible: "multiple fatalities are likely", the cyber-physical system "is likely lost or destroyed", "extreme or serious externalities" are imposed on other parties, or social systems such as elections or the financial grid "are destabilized and potentially collapse". CISA's decision table
BOD 26-04 (CISA's remediation timeline, Table 1)14 days if the affected system is publicly exposed; 60 days if it is not.
The score's inputs: In CISA KEV no (CISA's KEV catalog) · Automatable yes (CISA Vulnrichment) · Technical impact partial (CISA Vulnrichment). Whether your system is publicly exposed is yours to answer. BOD 26-04 binds US Federal Civilian Executive Branch agencies; for anyone else it is CISA's published timeline, a reference rather than an obligation. The directive · how EchelonGraph applies it