CVE-2023-22396Junos OS: Receipt of crafted TCP packets destined to the device results in MBUF leak leading to a Denial of Service (DoS)
- 7.5HighCVSS base score
- 0.60%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 51% of all CVEs
- NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
- NonePublic exploitsnone known yet
Description
An Uncontrolled Resource Consumption vulnerability in TCP processing on the Routing Engine (RE) of Juniper Networks Junos OS allows an unauthenticated network-based attacker to send crafted TCP packets destined to the device, resulting in an MBUF leak that ultimately leads to a Denial of Service (DoS). The system does not recover automatically and must be manually restarted to restore service. This issue occurs when crafted TCP packets are sent directly to a configured IPv4 or IPv6 interface on the device. Transit traffic will not trigger this issue. MBUF usage can be monitored through the use of the 'show system buffers' command. For example: user@junos> show system buffers | refresh 5 4054/566/4620 mbufs in use (current/cache/total) ... 4089/531/4620 mbufs in use (current/cache/total) ... 4151/589/4740 mbufs in use (current/cache/total) ... 4213/527/4740 mbufs in use (current/cache/total) This issue affects Juniper Networks Junos OS: 12.3 version 12.3R12-S19 and later versions; 15.1 version 15.1R7-S10 and later versions; 17.3 version 17.3R3-S12 and later versions; 18.4 version 18.4R3-S9 and later versions; 19.1 version 19.1R3-S7 and later versions; 19.2 version 19.2R3-S3 and later versions; 19.3 version 19.3R2-S7, 19.3R3-S3 and later versions prior to 19.3R3-S7; 19.4 version 19.4R2-S7, 19.4R3-S5 and later versions prior to 19.4R3-S10; 20.1 version 20.1R3-S1 and later versions; 20.2 version 20.2R3-S2 and later versions prior to 20.2R3-S6; 20.3 version 20.3R3-S1 and later versions prior to 20.3R3-S6; 20.4 version 20.4R2-S2, 20.4R3 and later versions prior to 20.4R3-S5; 21.1 version 21.1R2 and later versions prior to 21.1R3-S4; 21.2 version 21.2R1-S1, 21.2R2 and later versions prior to 21.2R3-S3; 21.3 versions prior to 21.3R3-S2; 21.4 versions prior to 21.4R3; 22.1 versions prior to 22.1R2-S1, 22.1R3; 22.2 versions prior to 22.2R1-S2, 22.2R2; 22.3 versions prior to 22.3R1-S1, 22.3R2.
Timeline
ID reserved
By juniper
- 16 days later
· 16 days later
Published
- 2 years later
· 2 years later
Record updated
Changes after publication (a new score, a public exploit, EPSS crossing 1, 10 or 50 %, leaving KEV) are kept since November 2026; earlier ones are not known.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| juniperCNA (assigner) | 3.1 | High7.5 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H |
| NVDNVD · Modified | 3.1 | High7.5 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 0.60% · top 51% of all CVEs (13 Nov 2026)
- CISA SSVC
- Exploitation: none · Automatable: no · Technical impact: partial
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: High 7.5.
Affected products
- affected 12.3R12-S19 – < 12.3*
- affected 15.1R7-S10 – < 15.1*
- affected 17.3R3-S12 – < 17.3*
- affected 18.4R3-S9 – < 18.4*
- affected 19.1R3-S7 – < 19.1*
- affected 19.2R3-S3 – < 19.2*
- affected 19.3R2-S7, 19.3R3-S3 – < 19.3*
- affected 19.4R2-S7, 19.4R3-S5 – < 19.4*
- affected 20.1R3-S1 – < 20.1*
- affected 20.2R3-S2 – < 20.2*
- affected 20.3R3-S1 – < 20.3*
- affected 20.4R2-S2, 20.4R3 – < 20.4*
- affected 21.1R2 – < 21.1*
- affected 21.2R1-S1, 21.2R2 – < 21.2*
- affected 21.3 – < 21.3R3-S2
- affected 21.4 – < 21.4R3
- affected 22.1 – < 22.1R2-S1, 22.1R3
- affected 22.2 – < 22.2R1-S2, 22.2R2
- affected 22.3 – < 22.3R1-S1, 22.3R2
What to do
Solution: The following software releases have been updated to resolve this specific issue: 19.3R3-S7, 19.4R3-S10, 20.2R3-S6, 20.3R3-S6, 20.4R3-S5, 21.1R3-S4, 21.2R3-S3, 21.3R3-S2, 21.4R3, 22.1R2-S1, 22.1R3, 22.2R1-S2, 22.2R2, 22.2R3, 22.3R1-S1, 22.3R2, 22.4R1, and all subsequent releases.
Workaround: Limit the exploitable attack surface of critical infrastructure networking equipment. Use access lists or firewall filters to limit access to the device only from trusted, administrative networks or hosts.
Exploitation: Juniper SIRT is not aware of any malicious exploitation of this vulnerability.
References
References1
- https://kb.juniper.net/JSA70192 (opens in a new tab)x_transferred
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-2023-26559 (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
[](https://cveledger.app/cve/CVE-2023-22396)Record last updated .