Zyxel Multiple Firewalls OS Command Injection Vulnerability
CVE-2023-28771 · Zyxel Multiple Firewalls · Published 2023-04-25
How bad would it be?
9.8 out of 10
CVSS rates it critical: about as damaging as flaws get.
How likely is it to be used?
99%
Estimated chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, among the top 1% of all scored flaws (EPSS, 2026-10-29).
Is it already being used?
Yes
CISA has seen it exploited in real attacks. For US government agencies the fix is deadline passed 1227 days ago (2023-06-21).
What CISA says to do
Apply updates per vendor instructions.
Zyxel ATP, USG FLEX, VPN, and ZyWALL/USG firewalls allow for improper error message handling which could allow an unauthenticated attacker to execute OS commands remotely by sending crafted packets to an affected device.
Improper error message handling in Zyxel ZyWALL/USG series firmware versions 4.60 through 4.73, VPN series firmware versions 4.60 through 5.35, USG FLEX series firmware versions 4.60 through 5.35, and ATP series firmware versions 4.60 through 5.35, which could allow an unauthenticated attacker to execute some OS commands remotely by sending crafted packets to an affected device.
Understand the kind of weakness behind this flaw. These resources teach the weakness, rather than reproduce this specific CVE. Follow the vendor's advice above to fix the affected product.
OS command injection
Input changes a command that the server runs through its operating system.
CWE is a catalogue of weakness types. Labels come from the sources shown and can differ or change. Resource matches reviewed 16 October 2026.
On SentryFeed
No story in the last 14 days has mentioned it.
Exploited flaws from CISA's KEV catalogue. Chance of exploitation from EPSS by FIRST. Descriptions and scores from the NVD. This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD.