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ScreenOS

Real-time operating system

ScreenOS is a real-time embedded operating system for the NetScreen range of hardware firewall devices from Juniper Networks.

01Features

Beside transport level security ScreenOS also integrates these flow management applications:

02Possible NSA backdoor and 2015 "Unauthorized Code" incident

In December 2015, Juniper Networks announced that it had found unauthorized code in ScreenOS that had been there since August 2012. The two backdoors it created would allow sophisticated hackers to control the firewall of un-patched Juniper Netscreen products and decrypt network traffic. At least one of the backdoors appeared likely to have been the effort of a governmental interest. There was speculation in the security field about whether it was the NSA. Many in the security industry praised Juniper for being transparent about the breach. WIRED speculated that the lack of details that were disclosed and the intentional use of a random number generator with known security flaws could suggest that it was planted intentionally.

03NSA and GCHQ

A 2011 leaked NSA document says that GCHQ had current exploit capability against the following ScreenOS devices: NS5gt, N25, NS50, NS500, NS204, NS208, NS5200, NS5000, SSG5, SSG20, SSG140, ISG 1000, ISG 2000. The exploit capabilities seem consistent with the program codenamed FEEDTROUGH.

04Versions

ScreenOS version Release date End of Support End of life
6.3.0r27 23 April 2019
6.0 19 April 200719 April 201019 April 2011
5.4 24 July 200624 July 200924 July 2010
5.3 24 October 200524 October 200824 October 2009
5.2 11 May 200511 May 200811 May 2009
5.1 22 October 200422 October 200722 October 2008
5.0 18 December 200318 December 200618 December 2007
4.0 1 August 200231 October 200631 October 2007
Watch videos about ScreenOSExplainers and documentaries on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article ScreenOS, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

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