A password aging vulnerability in the RADIUS client of Juniper Networks Junos OS and Junos OS Evolved allows an authenticated, network-based attacker to access the device without enforcing the required password change.
Affected devices allow logins by users for whom the RADIUS server has responded with a reject and required the user to change the password as their password was expired. Therefore the policy mandating the password change is not enforced. This does not allow users to login with a wrong password, but only with the correct but expired one.
This issue affects:
Junos OS:
Junos OS Evolved:
The product does not have a mechanism in place for managing password aging.
Password aging (or password rotation) is a policy that forces users to change their passwords after a defined time period passes, such as every 30 or 90 days. Without mechanisms such as aging, users might not change their passwords in a timely manner. Note that while password aging was once considered an important security feature, it has since fallen out of favor by many, because it is not as effective against modern threats compared to other mechanisms such as slow hashes. In addition, forcing frequent changes can unintentionally encourage users to select less-secure passwords. However, password aging is still in use due to factors such as compliance requirements, e.g., Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS).