CVE-2026-21916CWE-61

Junos OS: A low privileged user can escalate their privileges so that they can login as root

High · published April 9, 2026

CVSS v4.0
7.0
EPSS
0%
Percentile
2.3
In the wild
Unconfirmed
What it is

A UNIX Symbolic Link (Symlink) Following vulnerability in the CLI of Juniper Networks Junos OS allows a local, authenticated attacker with low privileges to escalate their privileges to root which will lead to a complete compromise of the system.

When after a user has performed a specific 'file link ...' CLI operation, another user commits (unrelated configuration changes), the first user can login as root.

This issue affects Junos OS:

* all versions before 23.2R2-S7,

* 23.4 versions before 23.4R2-S6,

* 24.2 versions before 24.2R2-S3,

* 24.4 versions before 24.4R2-S2,

* 25.2 versions before 25.2R2.

This issue does not affect versions 25.4R1 or later.

The record
Technical detail
CVSS v4.0
7.0 · HIGH
Vector
CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:P/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:L/AU:Y/R:U/RE:M
EPSS
0.00129 · 2.3th percentile
Weakness
CWE-61 · UNIX Symbolic Link (Symlink) Following
Published
2026-04-09T21:28Z
EPSS history
Timeline
  • 09 APR 21:28Z
    Junos OS: A low privileged user can escalate their privileges so that they can login as root
    cvelistv5