CVE-2022-22172Junos OS and Junos OS Evolved: An l2cpd memory leak can occur when specific LLDP packets are received leading to a DoS

Description

A Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime vulnerability in the Layer-2 control protocols daemon (l2cpd) of Juniper Networks Junos OS and Junos OS Evolved allows an unauthenticated adjacent attacker to cause a memory leak. Continued exploitation can lead to memory exhaustion and thereby a Denial of Service (DoS). This issue occurs when specific LLDP packets are received. The impact of the l2cpd cores is that if any of the stp protocols (rstp, mstp or vstp) is used then stp re-converges and traffic loss will occur during that time. Also if any services depend on LLDP state (like PoE or VoIP device recognition) then these will also be affected. The memory utilization of the L2CPd process can be monitored with the following command: user@host> show system processes extensive | match l2cpd 1234 root 52 0 521M 43412K RUN 1 4:02 34.47% l2cpd This issue affects: Juniper Networks Junos OS 18.4 version 18.4R2-S4 and later versions prior to 18.4R2-S10. 19.2 versions prior to 19.2R1-S8, 19.2R3-S4; 19.3 versions prior to 19.3R3-S5; 19.4 versions prior to 19.4R3-S7; 20.1 versions prior to 20.1R3-S3; 20.2 versions prior to 20.2R3-S2; 20.3 versions prior to 20.3R3-S1; 20.4 versions prior to 20.4R3; 21.1 versions prior to 21.1R2-S2, 21.1R3; 21.2 versions prior to 21.2R2; Juniper Networks Junos OS Evolved All versions prior to 20.4R3-S2-EVO; 21.1 version 21.1R1-EVO and later versions; 21.2 versions prior to 21.2R2-EVO. This issue does not affect: Juniper Networks Junos OS 19.1 version 19.1R1 and later versions.

Timeline

Scores

EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)

0.38% · top 67% of all CVEs (14 Nov 2026)

The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: Medium 6.5.

Affected products

• Juniper Networks · Junos OS

  • unaffected unspecified – < 18.4R2-S4
  • affected 18.4R2-S4 – < 18.4*
  • unaffected 19.1R1 – < 19.1*
  • affected 19.2 – < 19.2R1-S8, 19.2R3-S4
  • affected 19.3 – < 19.3R3-S5
  • affected 19.4 – < 19.4R3-S7
  • affected 20.1 – < 20.1R3-S3
  • affected 20.2 – < 20.2R3-S2
  • affected 20.3 – < 20.3R3-S1
  • affected 20.4 – < 20.4R3
  • affected 21.1 – < 21.1R2-S2, 21.1R3
  • affected 21.2 – < 21.2R2

• Juniper Networks · Junos OS Evolved

  • affected unspecified – < 20.4R3-S2-EVO
  • affected 21.1R1-EVO – < 21.1*
  • affected 21.2 – < 21.2R2-EVO

What to do

Solution: The following software releases have been updated to resolve this specific issue: for Junos OS: 19.2R1-S8, 19.2R3-S4, 19.3R3-S5, 19.4R3-S7, 20.1R3-S3, 20.2R3-S2, 20.3R3-S1, 20.4R3, 21.1R2-S2, 21.1R3, 21.2R2, 21.3R1, and all subsequent releases. for Junos OS Evolved: 20.4R3-S2-EVO, 21.2R2-EVO, 21.3R1-EVO, and all subsequent releases.

Workaround: There are no viable workarounds for this issue.

Exploitation: Juniper SIRT is not aware of any malicious exploitation of this vulnerability.

Sources

The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.

• CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
• CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
• NVD (opens in a new tab)
• FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
• EUVD EUVD-2022-27319 (opens in a new tab)
• OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
• GitHub Advisories (opens in a new tab)
• CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)

Badge for a README or a ticket

[![CVE-2022-22172](https://cveledger.app/badge/CVE-2022-22172.svg)](https://cveledger.app/cve/CVE-2022-22172)

Record last updated 16 Sept 2024, 20:36 UTC.