# CVE-2026-73438: Security Advisory 0172

> An unauthenticated attacker can crash the OSPFv3 agent on Arista EOS devices, disrupting routing adjacencies and causing a denial of service.

- **Severity:** High 7.0 (`CVSS:4.0/AV:A/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 16 Sep 2026
- **Updated:** 16 Sep 2026
- **Also known as:** GHSA-665h-qpgj-xrwp

## What is CVE-2026-73438?

CVE-2026-73438 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Arista Networks EOS, published on 16 Sep 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

On affected platforms running Arista EOS with Open Shortest Path First version 3 (OSPFv3) configured, an unauthenticated attacker on the same OSPFv3 broadcast domain can send a specially crafted set of packets that can cause the Ospf3 agent to restart unexpectedly. The crash results in the loss of all OSPFv3 adjacencies on the affected device and may disrupt routing across the broader OSPF domain until the agent recovers.

This issue was reported externally by Dravanet Inc., and Arista is not aware of any malicious exploitation of this vulnerability in customer networks.

Weakness: CWE-617 (Reachable Assertion)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-73438?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-73438?

No fix has been published for CVE-2026-73438 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2026-73438 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-73438 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-73438 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-73438 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Arista Networks EOS, published on 16 Sep 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-73438 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Arista Networks EOS. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-73438/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-73438/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-73438
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-73438
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-73438

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-73438/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.