⚠ Reference material — not professional advice. Test in staging, back up first, verify against your specific version. Use your own judgment for your environment.
● Medium · CVSS 5.8

How to Fix CVE-2026-33773: Initialization of resource in Junos OS

By Sai Kiran Pandrala. Last verified: 2026-05-25.

⚡ At a glance
Severity5.8 (Medium)
Actively exploited?No public listing in CISA KEV
AffectedJuniper Networks Junos OS 23.4R2-S6 to <23.4R2-S7, 24.2R2-S3 to <24.2R2-S4
Fixed inJunos OS 23.4R2-S7; Junos OS 24.2R2-S4
Type (CWE)CWE-1419: Incorrect Initialization of Resource

What is CVE-2026-33773?

An Incorrect Initialization of Resource vulnerability in the packet forwarding engine (pfe) of Juniper Networks Junos OS on specific EX Series and QFX Series device allows an unauthenticated, network-based attacker to cause an integrity impact to downstream networks. When the same family inet or inet6 filter is applied on an IRB interface and on a physical interface as egress filter on EX4100, EX4400, EX4650 and QFX5120 devices, only one of the two filters will be applied, which can lead to traffic being sent out one of these interfaces which should have been blocked. This issue affects Junos OS on EX Series and QFX Series: * 23.4 version 23.4R2-S6, * 24.2 version 24.2R2-S3. No other Junos OS versions are affected.

Am I affected?

From the device CLI, run the version check:


# Cisco IOS/IOS XE
show version | include Version

# FortiGate (FortiOS)
get system status

# Palo Alto (PAN-OS)
show system info | match sw-version

# Juniper (Junos)
show version

Compare what you see against the Affected row above (Juniper Networks Junos OS 23.4R2-S6 to <23.4R2-S7, 24.2R2-S3 to <24.2R2-S4). If your build sits inside that range, the device is exposed and should be upgraded.

How to fix CVE-2026-33773

The primary fix is to upgrade Junos OS to the patched build. Use the commands for your platform below; the patched versions listed in the vendor advisory are: Junos OS 23.4R2-S7; Junos OS 24.2R2-S4.

Juniper (Junos CLI)


# Vendor advisory: https://kb.juniper.net/JSA107815
show version
request system software add /var/tmp/<patched-image>.tgz no-validate reboot

Complete operator runbook (network appliance)

Run this from your management workstation (Linux/macOS or Windows with a TFTP server reachable). It shells into the device, backs up the running config, transfers the patched image, and reloads.


# Vendor advisory: https://kb.juniper.net/JSA107815
#!/usr/bin/env bash
# CVE-2026-33773 fix runbook for Juniper Networks Junos OS
# Target build: Junos OS 23.4R2-S7; Junos OS 24.2R2-S4

set -euo pipefail
DEVICE="${1:?usage: $0 <device-ip> <patched-image-file> <tftp-server-ip>}"
IMAGE="${2:?patched image filename required}"
TFTP="${3:?tftp server ip required}"
LOG="/var/log/cve-2026-33773-$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S).log"

echo "[1/4] Pulling current config from $DEVICE"
ssh admin@"$DEVICE" "show version" | tee -a "$LOG"
ssh admin@"$DEVICE" "copy running-config tftp://$TFTP/cve-2026-33773-pre.cfg"

echo "[2/4] Uploading patched image $IMAGE via TFTP"
ssh admin@"$DEVICE" "copy tftp://$TFTP/$IMAGE flash:$IMAGE" | tee -a "$LOG"

echo "[3/4] Setting boot image and reloading"
ssh admin@"$DEVICE" "configure terminal
 boot system flash:$IMAGE
 end
 write memory
 reload" | tee -a "$LOG"

echo "[4/4] Wait ~5 minutes, then verify"
sleep 300
ssh admin@"$DEVICE" "show version | include Version" | tee -a "$LOG"
echo "Compare reported version against Junos OS 23.4R2-S7; Junos OS 24.2R2-S4"

If you can't patch immediately

If you cannot apply the patched version today, restrict exposure with one of the following runnable controls. None replace the patch.

Network appliance ACL


# Cisco IOS example: restrict management plane to a trusted subnet
configure terminal
access-list 99 permit 10.0.0.0 0.255.255.255
line vty 0 15
 access-class 99 in
end
write memory

Service-level fallback


# If the affected feature is optional, stop the service until the patch is applied
sudo systemctl stop junos
sudo systemctl disable junos

How to verify the fix worked


# Linux
junos --version 2>/dev/null || dpkg -s junos | grep -i version
rpm -q junos 2>/dev/null || true


# Windows
winget list | findstr /I "junos"
Get-HotFix | Sort-Object InstalledOn -Descending | Select-Object -First 5

Expected: the reported version is at or above Junos OS 23.4R2-S7; Junos OS 24.2R2-S4. Restart any services that loaded the old library (systemctl restart <service> on Linux, restart the Windows service or reboot when prompted). For network appliances, run show version on the device and confirm the build matches the patched release.

Frequently asked questions

Other vulnerabilities in the same area that are worth patching alongside this one:

Is CVE-2026-33773 actually being exploited?

According to the data sources above, no public confirmation of in-the-wild exploitation at this time. Either way, the fix is the same: apply the vendor patch.

Do I need to reboot after patching?

For OS or kernel updates, yes. For most userland packages a systemctl restart <service> is enough. Any process that loaded the old shared library keeps using it until restarted, so when in doubt, reboot.

What is the CVSS score?

5.8 (medium). Refer to the vendor advisory for the exact vector string.

Where is the official advisory?

See the References section at the bottom of this page; the vendor's URL is the authoritative source for affected builds and patched versions.

References

*Written by Sai Kiran Pandrala. Assembled from the official vendor advisory, NVD record, and CISA KEV listing on 2026-05-25. Always confirm against the vendor's advisory before applying changes in production.*