Improper certificate validation in Junos OS - CVE-2016-1280
Published: July 14, 2016 / Updated: June 28, 2025
Vulnerability identifier: #VU141
CSH Severity: Medium
CVSS v4: 6.9 [CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:L/VI:L/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N]
CVE-ID: CVE-2016-1280
CWE-ID: CWE-295
Exploitation vector: Remote access
Exploit availability:
No public exploit available
Vulnerability details
The vulnerability allows a remote attacker to bypass certificate validation on the target system.
The vulnerability exists due to CN validation error. A remote unauthenticated attacker can bypass certificate validation on the target system by supplying a specially crafted self-signed certificate with a spoofed Common Name (CN) value that matches a valid certificate authority (CA).
This issue only affects certificates used for IKE/IPsec. Other public key-based authentication is unaffected by this vulnerability.
Successful exploitation of this vulnerability may result in host/resource access.
The vulnerability exists due to CN validation error. A remote unauthenticated attacker can bypass certificate validation on the target system by supplying a specially crafted self-signed certificate with a spoofed Common Name (CN) value that matches a valid certificate authority (CA).
This issue only affects certificates used for IKE/IPsec. Other public key-based authentication is unaffected by this vulnerability.
Successful exploitation of this vulnerability may result in host/resource access.
Affected software
Junos OS
How to mitigate CVE-2016-1280
Install update from vendor's website.
Junos OS - addressed in versions 12.1X44-D52, 12.1X44-D55, 12.1X46-D37, 12.1X46-D40, 12.1X47-D30, 12.3X48-D20, 12.3R12, 13.3R10, 14.1X53-D40, 14.1R8, 14.2R7, 15.1X49-D20, 15.1X53-D60, 15.1R4, 16.1R1