Advanced Threat PreventionOperating system · Juniper

CVE-2019-0021

MEDIUM · 5.5 CVSS v3.0 Published 2019-01-15
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 5.0.4 or later.
See remediation →
57/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Zero-click

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
On Juniper ATP, secret passphrase CLI inputs, such as "set mcm", are logged to /var/log/syslog in clear text, allowing authenticated local user to be able to view these secret information. This issue affects Juniper ATP 5.0 versions prior to 5.0.4.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · high confidence

On Juniper ATP 5.0 versions prior to 5.0.4, CLI commands containing secret passphrases (such as 'set mcm' commands) are written in clear text to /var/log/syslog. Any authenticated local user with access to this log file can read sensitive credential information that should remain confidential.

MitigationUpgrade Juniper ATP to version 5.0.4 or later to patch the vulnerable logging behavior. As a workaround, limit local user access to systems where this vulnerability exists until the patch can be applied.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
Advanced Threat PreventionOperating system
Affected:>= 5.0.0, < 5.0.4

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
None
Availability
None

CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Verify Juniper ATP is installed
    Check if Juniper Advanced Threat Prevention software is present on the system by querying the installed packages or checking for ATP-specific processes and directories.
    Affected if Juniper ATP software is not installed - not affected.
  2. Determine the installed ATP version
    Run the command to query the Juniper ATP version (for example: 'request system software version' or check /var/db/pkg for ATP packages).
    Affected if Version is 5.0.0, 5.0.1, 5.0.2, or 5.0.3 - affected. Version 5.0.4 or later - not affected. Unable to determine version - further investigation needed.
  3. Check the syslog for exposed credentials
    Examine /var/log/syslog for cleartext occurrences of 'set mcm' commands or other passphrase-containing CLI commands by running: grep -E 'set.*(mcm|password|passphrase|secret)' /var/log/syslog
    Affected if Sensitive CLI commands containing passphrases are visible in the syslog - affected and credentials may be compromised.
  4. Verify local user access to the log file
    Confirm that the syslog file has read permissions that allow authenticated local users to access it (check file permissions with 'ls -la /var/log/syslog').
    Affected if Local users have read access to /var/log/syslog - the vulnerability is exploitable in your environment.

You are affected if Juniper ATP version is 5.0.0 through 5.0.3 AND the syslog contains cleartext passphrase commands accessible to local users.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

From vendor data
Upgrade available Upgrade to 5.0.4 or later
Fixed in 5.0.4
Interim mitigation

Upgrade Juniper ATP to version 5.0.4 or later to patch the vulnerable logging behavior. As a workaround, limit local user access to systems where this vulnerability exists until the patch can be applied.

Fix this in Advanced Threat Prevention Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation1.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing1.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
5.0 hours of engineering $890
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An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,424.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2019-0021 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.

References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2019-0021 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data