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CVE-2015-7755Juniper ScreenOS Improper Authentication Vulnerability

Patch nowCritical9.8Exploited, CISA due date 2025-10-23EPSS 61%, higher than 99% of scored CVEs

CVE-2015-7755 is a improper authentication in Juniper ScreenOS, rated critical (9.8 on CVSS 3.1).

Why this priority: Exploited in the wild: listed in CISA's KEV catalog.

Published · Updated · NVD status: Analyzed

What it is

The software does not prove who a caller is, so an attacker can pass as someone else.

How it is reached

An attacker can exploit it over the network, without an account, and nobody has to click anything.

What an attacker gains

A successful attack can read the data it protects, change data or behaviour and take it offline. In practice, this kind of flaw lets an attacker act as a signed-in user, or an administrator, without valid credentials.

Is it being exploited?

CISA added it to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2025-10-02: it is being exploited in the wild. It can be exploited automatically, at scale. EPSS estimates a 61% chance of exploitation activity in the next 30 days, higher than 99% of scored CVEs.

What to do

  1. Treat it as urgent: it is on CISA's KEV list. CISA's deadline for US federal agencies: 2025-10-23.
  2. No fixed version is listed yet. Find every place Juniper ScreenOS runs, watch the references for a fix, and plan a replacement if it is no longer supported.
  3. While there is no fix, keep it off the internet or behind a VPN, allowlist or authenticating proxy.
  4. Check exposed instances for signs of compromise, not only for the version.

Description from NVD

Juniper ScreenOS 6.2.0r15 through 6.2.0r18, 6.3.0r12 before 6.3.0r12b, 6.3.0r13 before 6.3.0r13b, 6.3.0r14 before 6.3.0r14b, 6.3.0r15 before 6.3.0r15b, 6.3.0r16 before 6.3.0r16b, 6.3.0r17 before 6.3.0r17b, 6.3.0r18 before 6.3.0r18b, 6.3.0r19 before 6.3.0r19b, and 6.3.0r20 before 6.3.0r21 allows remote attackers to obtain administrative access by entering an unspecified password during a (1) SSH or (2) TELNET session.

What this means for your architecture.

A CVE names a product. Whether it matters depends on where that product sits in your systems: what reaches it, which trust boundary it guards and what it can reach once compromised. Veriom maps your components, their relationships and your trust boundaries from your code, cloud and delivery evidence, so you can see where a component like this sits. The radar itself does not look at your systems.

Components it touches

  • Network edge devices: VPNs, firewalls, routers and gateways. They sit between the internet and internal networks, so a flaw in one is often the first step into everything behind it.
  • Operating systems on servers, workstations or devices. Everything on the host inherits the flaw.
  • Sign-in, session and token handling. The flaw sits between anonymous callers and authenticated sessions.
  • Identity providers and SSO. The flaw sits between anonymous callers and authenticated sessions.

Trust boundaries in play

  • Internet-facing entry points. No account is needed. Any instance reachable from outside your perimeter, through a load balancer, gateway, VPN or exposed admin port, is in scope.
  • Between anonymous callers and authenticated sessions. An attacker who crosses it can act as a signed-in user, or an administrator, without valid credentials.

Questions to answer about your own systems

  • Where does Juniper ScreenOS run in your systems, and at which version?
  • Which of those instances can be reached from the internet or partner networks?
  • What can it reach once compromised: which data stores, secrets and services?

Sources

  • CVE records and CVSS scores from the NVD CVE API. This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD.
  • Exploitation status from CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog.
  • Exploit likelihood from FIRST’s Exploit Prediction Scoring System (EPSS), refreshed daily.
  • Explanations are written by Veriom from fixed templates over each record’s data, not by a person reviewing each CVE. Descriptions are quoted from the records as published.