Description

An unauthenticated Denial-of-Service (DoS) vulnerability exists in the API endpoint of AOS-CX. Successful exploitation of this vulnerability results in the ability to interrupt the normal operation of the affected service.

Executive Summary

Technical Details

Mitigations

References

Additional Metadata

{
  "score": "7.5",
  "pubDate": "2026-09-01T21:18:44.050Z",
  "pubdate": "2026-09-01T21:18:44.050Z",
  "executiveSummary": "This vulnerability is a Denial-of-Service (DoS) flaw identified within the API interface of the AOS-CX network operating system.\nThe vulnerability allows an unauthenticated, remote attacker to trigger a service interruption, effectively rendering the affected management API unresponsive.\nThe primary risk is the loss of administrative control and the inability to manage or monitor network infrastructure via the affected API endpoint.\nNo authentication is required to initiate the attack, meaning any actor with network visibility to the management interface can potentially exploit this condition.\nSuccessful exploitation results in service instability or a complete crash of the targeted API component, disrupting administrative workflows and automated network management processes.\nThe vulnerability underscores the necessity of strict management plane protection and the implementation of robust input validation mechanisms for networked infrastructure equipment.",
  "technicalDetails": "The vulnerability resides within the AOS-CX management API architecture, specifically in the handling of incoming requests at the service interface layer.\nThe root cause pertains to improper validation or resource management when processing unauthenticated requests sent to the API endpoint. When a specially crafted request is transmitted to the vulnerable service, the application may fail to manage memory, CPU cycles, or socket connections appropriately.\nThe attack flow begins with the reconnaissance phase, where an attacker identifies an AOS-CX device with an exposed management API over the network. Since the service does not require authentication for the vulnerable path, the attacker can transmit a malicious payload directly to the targeted endpoint via HTTP or HTTPS.\nUpon receiving the crafted request, the API service encounters an error condition or a resource exhaustion state. If the vulnerability involves improper error handling, it may trigger an unhandled exception that causes the service process to crash. If it involves resource exhaustion, the attacker can flood the endpoint with malformed requests, forcing the service to consume excessive resources, which leads to a denial of service.\nThis issue exposes the device to remote exploitation from any network segment that has reachability to the API management interface. The impact is confined to the API service; however, because the API is critical for configuration, telemetry, and monitoring, the loss of this service significantly impedes the ability of administrators to perform routine operations or respond to security incidents on the device.\nPost-exploitation impact is characterized by the degradation of service availability. If the underlying service does not possess an automatic restart mechanism or a robust watchdog process, the API will remain unavailable until manual intervention is performed, such as a service-level restart or a device reboot.\nThe lack of authentication requirements elevates the severity of this vulnerability, as it removes the barrier to entry typically provided by access control lists or credential requirements, allowing for rapid and automated exploitation attempts across susceptible network segments."
}