HPE AOS-Switch: Unauthenticated buffer overflow leading to information disclosure and DoS
Summary
HPE AOS-Switch (AOS-S), the operating system of HPE Aruba access and aggregation switches, contains an unauthenticated buffer overflow. An unauthenticated attacker on the local network segment can expose sensitive memory contents and cause a denial of service on the affected switch. Internet exposure is not the main concern unless the management interface is reachable from outside.
Affected
- AOS-S 16.11.0000 to 16.11.0031 (according to the HPE advisory scope: 16.11.0031 and below)
- Older branches: not confirmed by HPE; treat as unconfirmed
- End-of-support releases: exposure not assessed by HPE
Fixed in
- Upgrade to AOS-S 16.11.0032 or later
- Firmware is available from the HPE Networking Support Portal
Workaround
- No specific workaround is given in the HPE advisory for this CVE.
- Third-party guidance: restrict management access and place CLI and web interfaces on a dedicated management network (verify against the HPE bulletin before relying on it).
Exploitation
- No evidence of exploitation in the wild found.
- HPE is not aware of public discussion or exploit code as of the release date.
- Not listed in the CISA KEV catalogue.
- EPSS score: 0.00199 (snapshot).
- No public proof-of-concept known from the sources reviewed.
Our recommendation
- Inventory all AOS-S switches and their firmware versions.
- Upgrade switches at or below 16.11.0031 to 16.11.0032 or later.
- Restrict management access to a dedicated management network until patched.
- Prioritise the related HPE flaws CVE-2026-76744 and CVE-2026-76742, which are network-reachable and more serious; the same upgrade covers them.
- Monitor switches for crashes or unexpected behaviour.
Public exploits
PoC-in-GitHub, Metasploit and Exploit-DB list nothing for this CVE.
Research sources
- HPE Security Bulletin HPESBNW05156 support.hpe.com
- HPE CSAF advisory HPESBNW05156 csaf.arubanetworking.hpe.com
- CCB Belgium advisory on HPE AOS-S ccb.belgium.be
- OpenCVE CVE-2026-76746 app.opencve.io
- Strix CVE-2026-76746 www.strix.ai
- SecurityOnline: HPE AOS-Switch vulnerabilities securityonline.info
- Vulners VulnRichment CVE-2026-76746 vulners.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 31 Oct 2026, 03:12.
Original description (NVD)
An unauthenticated buffer overflow vulnerability exists in AOS-S. Successful exploitation could allow an unauthenticated adjacent attacker to expose sensitive memory contents and cause a denial of service on the affected device.
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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