CVE-2026-73766 in AOS-CX
Summary
by MITRE • 09/02/2026
Command injection vulnerabilities in the API endpoint of AOS-CX could allow an authenticated remote attacker with administrative privileges to inject arbitrary commands. Successful exploitation could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary commands as a privileged user on the underlying operating system.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 09/02/2026
The vulnerability described constitutes a critical command injection flaw within the Application Operating System for CX series switches, specifically targeting its API endpoint interface. This security defect allows an authenticated remote attacker who has already obtained administrative privileges to inject and execute arbitrary shell commands directly on the underlying host operating system. While the requirement of prior authentication might suggest a lower severity in some contexts, the elevation from application-level admin rights to full OS-level command execution represents a severe compromise of the device's integrity. This type of vulnerability typically arises when user-supplied input is passed to system-level functions without adequate sanitization or validation, allowing special characters such as semicolons, ampersands, or pipe symbols to terminate intended commands and initiate new ones. The presence of this flaw indicates that the API endpoint fails to properly isolate application logic from the operating system shell environment, creating a direct pathway for remote code execution under high-privilege contexts.
From an operational perspective, the impact of this vulnerability is profound because it grants attackers complete control over the network infrastructure device. An adversary leveraging this command injection can manipulate routing tables, modify firewall rules, exfiltrate sensitive configuration data, or install persistent backdoors to maintain long-term access. Furthermore, since AOS-CX devices often serve as critical nodes in enterprise networks, compromising them can facilitate lateral movement across the internal network segment. Attackers may use these compromised switches as pivot points to launch further attacks against other systems that are not directly exposed to the internet but reside within the same trusted zone. The ability to execute commands with elevated privileges means that standard security controls like access control lists or intrusion detection signatures designed for lower-privilege users may be bypassed entirely, rendering many defensive measures ineffective once this specific vulnerability is exploited.
This flaw aligns closely with Common Weakness Enumeration identifier CWE-78, which defines Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an OS Command, commonly known as OS Command Injection. The attack vector corresponds to ATT&CK technique T1059, specifically sub-techniques involving command and scripting interpreters such as sh or bash. In the context of network device exploitation, this also relates to MITRE ATT&CK for Enterprise techniques like Initial Access via Valid Accounts (T1078) followed by Execution through Command Line Interface (T1059). The scenario highlights a failure in input validation and output encoding practices within the API implementation, where trusted administrative users are assumed safe but their inputs are not sufficiently constrained against malicious payloads. This assumption of trust without verification is a common architectural flaw in network management interfaces that have evolved over time to support complex automation features while neglecting rigorous security testing for injection vectors.
Mitigation strategies must focus on both immediate remediation and long-term architectural improvements. The primary defense is the application of vendor-provided software patches or firmware updates that address this specific API endpoint vulnerability, ensuring that input sanitization routines are correctly implemented to reject any non-alphanumeric characters unless explicitly required by legitimate functionality. Administrators should enforce strict role-based access control principles, limiting administrative privileges only to those personnel who absolutely require them, thereby reducing the attack surface for authenticated users. Additionally, deploying network segmentation and micro-segmentation can limit the blast radius if a switch is compromised, preventing attackers from easily pivoting to other critical assets. Regular vulnerability scanning of management interfaces and implementing Web Application Firewalls with rules tailored to detect command injection patterns in API traffic can provide an additional layer of defense-in-depth against exploitation attempts targeting this specific weakness.