CVE-2023-28973: Juniper Junos OS Evolved

High severity, CVSS 7.1. EPSS: 0.1% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days.

An Improper Authorization vulnerability in the 'sysmanctl' shell command of Juniper Networks Junos OS Evolved allows a local, authenticated attacker to execute administrative commands that could impact the integrity of the system or system availability. Administrative functions such as daemon restarting, routing engine (RE) switchover, and node shutdown can all be performed through exploitation of the 'sysmanctl' command. Access to the 'sysmanctl' command is only available from the Junos shell. Neither direct nor indirect access to 'sysmanctl' is available from the Junos CLI. This issue affects Juniper Networks Junos OS Evolved: All versions prior to 20.4R3-S5-EVO; 21.2 versions prior to 21.2R3-EVO; 21.3 versions prior to 21.3R2-EVO; 21.4 versions prior to 21.4R1-S2-EVO, 21.4R2-EVO.

Affected products

• Juniper Junos OS Evolved: before 20.4 (fixed in 20.4); version 20.4 only; version 21.1 only; version 21.2 only; version 21.3 only; version 21.4 only

Published 2023-04-17. Last modified 2026-06-17.