CVE-2026-76724 in Instant ON
Summary
by MITRE • 09/29/2026
A command injection vulnerability exists in CLI of the affected HPE Networking Instant ON APs that could allow an unauthenticated adjacent attacker to perform command injection by sending specially crafted packets. 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 • 09/29/2026
The identified security flaw represents a critical severity vulnerability within the Command Line Interface of HPE Networking Instant ON Access Points, specifically classified under CWE-78 Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an OS Command commonly known as command injection. This architectural weakness stems from insufficient validation and sanitization mechanisms applied to user-supplied input before it is processed by the underlying operating system shell. The vulnerability allows for the execution of arbitrary commands with elevated privileges, effectively granting full control over the device's host environment rather than limiting access to a restricted application sandbox or isolated service context.
From an operational perspective, this flaw poses a severe risk because it requires no authentication and can be exploited by any attacker positioned on the same local network segment. The term adjacent attacker indicates that physical proximity or logical connectivity via Ethernet is sufficient for exploitation, eliminating the need for complex social engineering or remote access credentials. An adversary leveraging this vulnerability could inject malicious payloads into CLI commands, bypassing standard security controls to execute system-level operations such as creating new user accounts with administrative rights, modifying firewall rules, exfiltrating sensitive configuration data, or installing persistent backdoors within the device firmware.
The exploitation vector aligns closely with MITRE ATT&CK technique T1059 Command and Scripting Interpreter, where adversaries use native operating system utilities to execute commands directly on a target host. By exploiting this command injection flaw, an attacker can achieve initial access and privilege escalation simultaneously, as the injected commands run under the context of a privileged user account inherent to the device's operational design. This dual impact significantly lowers the barrier for entry while maximizing the potential damage per successful exploit attempt, turning a simple network appliance into a pivot point for further lateral movement within the enterprise infrastructure.
Mitigation strategies must prioritize immediate patching through vendor-provided firmware updates that address the input validation logic in the CLI processing module. In scenarios where patching is not immediately feasible, network segmentation should be enforced to restrict access to these devices from untrusted or public networks, ensuring only authorized management stations can interact with the administrative interfaces. Additionally, deploying intrusion detection systems configured to detect anomalous command patterns or unusual outbound traffic originating from managed switches and access points can provide an additional layer of monitoring and early warning for potential exploitation attempts.