Juniper Junos OS: NULL pointer dereference in pkid enables denial of service
Summary
A NULL pointer dereference in the pkid certificate management daemon of Junos OS allows an unauthenticated remote attacker to crash the process with a malformed packet. The attack targets packets received during CMP enrollment or automatic certificate re-enrollment, so it requires that these PKI functions are configured. Successful exploitation causes a denial of service on the affected device, such as a router or firewall, without data loss or integrity impact.
Affected
- Junos OS 0 to before 23.2R2-S7.7
- Junos OS 23.4 to before 23.4R2-S8.13
- Junos OS 24.2 to before 24.2R2-S5.5
- Junos OS 24.4 to before 24.4R2-S5
- Junos OS 25.2 to before 25.2R2-S2
- Junos OS 25.4 to before 25.4R1-S3
- Junos OS 26.2 to before 26.2R1-S2
- Default configuration: unaffected
Fixed in
- Junos OS 23.2R2-S7.7
- Junos OS 23.4R2-S8.13
- Junos OS 24.2R2-S5.5
- Junos OS 24.4R2-S5
- Junos OS 25.2R2-S2
- Junos OS 25.4R1-S3 or 25.4R2
- Junos OS 26.2R1-S2 or 26.2R2
- Junos OS 26.4R1 and all later releases
- Respins of 23.2, 23.4 and 24.2 have been published; previously published versions were rebuilt.
Workaround
- No known workarounds according to Juniper SIRT.
Exploitation
- Juniper SIRT is not aware of any malicious exploitation.
- Tenable reports no known public exploits.
- CISA SSVC: exploitation none, automatable yes, technical impact partial.
Our recommendation
- Schedule the Junos OS update from the October 2026 Juniper security bulletin (JSA112188) in the next maintenance window.
- Check whether CMP enrollment or automatic certificate re-enrollment is configured on each device. Prioritise devices that have it enabled and are reachable from untrusted networks.
- Verify the installed version against the JSA, since the version table was not confirmed from the primary source.
- Apply the whole October 2026 bulletin, not only this CVE.
Public exploits
PoC-in-GitHub, Metasploit and Exploit-DB list nothing for this CVE.
Research sources
- Juniper Security Advisory JSA112188 supportportal.juniper.net
- Tenable plugin 372460 www.tenable.com
- Strix CVE-2026-101973 www.strix.ai
- OpenCVE CVE-2026-101973 app.opencve.io
- VulDB 420103 vuldb.com
Researched and written up in English and German by an AI (Claude by Anthropic) based on NVD, CISA, EPSS and the sources listed. The vendor information is authoritative. Researched on 1 Nov 2026, 03:52.
Original description (NVD)
A NULL Pointer Dereference vulnerability in the pkid component of Juniper Networks Junos OS allows an unauthenticated remote attacker to cause a denial of service via a malformed packet received during CMP enrollment or automatic certificate re-enrollment.
NVD references (1)
Sources
The tracker combines official, freely usable data sources – updated continuously:
- NVD (NIST) – CVEs, rating (CVSS), affected products
- CISA KEV – vulnerabilities confirmed by CISA as actively exploited
- CISA Vulnrichment – CISA assessment (SSVC) in the official CVE record
- FIRST EPSS – probability of exploitation
- Microsoft MSRC – Patch Tuesday: vulnerabilities, severity, updates
- PoC-in-GitHub – public proof-of-concept repositories
- Metasploit (Rapid7) – modules of the Metasploit Framework
- Exploit-DB (OffSec) – archive of public exploits (links only)
- Patch days: official vendor pages (linked per vendor) (Vendor patch days)
This product uses data from the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. EPSS data © FIRST.org.
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