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JunosOperating system · Juniper

CVE-2020-1619

MEDIUM · 6.7 CVSS v3.1 Published 2020-04-08
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
69/100
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
A privilege escalation vulnerability in Juniper Networks QFX10K Series, EX9200 Series, MX Series, and PTX Series with Next-Generation Routing Engine (NG-RE), allows a local authenticated high privileged user to access the underlying WRL host. This issue only affects QFX10K Series with NG-RE, EX9200 Series with NG-RE, MX Series with NG-RE and PTX Series with NG-RE; which uses vmhost. This issue affects Juniper Networks Junos OS: 16.1 versions prior to 16.1R7-S6; 16.2 versions prior to 16.2R2-S11; 17.1 versions prior to 17.1R2-S11, 17.1R3; 17.2 versions prior to 17.2R1-S9, 17.2R3-S3; 17.3 versions prior to 17.3R2-S5, 17.3R3-S7; 17.4 versions prior to 17.4R2-S7, 17.4R3; 18.1 versions prior to 18.1R3-S4; 18.2 versions prior to 18.2R3; 18.2X75 versions prior to 18.2X75-D50; 18.3 versions prior to 18.3R2; 18.4 versions prior to 18.4R2. To identify whether the device has NG-RE with vmhost, customer can run the following command: > show vmhost status Compute cluster: rainier-re-cc Compute Node: rainier-re-cn, Online If the "show vmhost status" is not supported, then the device does not have NG-RE with vmhost.

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

Local privilege escalation vulnerability in Juniper QFX10K, EX9200, MX, and PTX Series with Next-Generation Routing Engine (NG-RE) using vmhost. An authenticated high-privileged user can escape to access the underlying WRL host operating system, escalating beyond their intended Junos OS privileges.

MitigationUpgrade Junos OS to the specified patched versions for each branch (16.1R7-S6+, 16.2R2-S11+, 17.1R3+, etc.) on affected NG-RE devices. Identify affected devices using 'show vmhost status'; if command is unsupported, device is not vulnerable.

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
JunosOperating system
Affected:= 16.1= 16.2= 17.1= 17.2= 17.3= 17.4= 18.1= 18.2= 18.2x75= 18.3= 18.4

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
High
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

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 vmhost command is supported
    Run 'show vmhost status' on the device CLI. If the command returns an error or 'not supported', the device is not using NG-RE and is not affected.
    Affected if Command executes successfully (vmhost is present)
  2. Confirm Junos OS version
    Run 'show version' or 'show version detail' to retrieve the installed Junos OS version string.
    Affected if Version matches any of: 16.1, 16.2, 17.1, 17.2, 17.3, 17.4, 18.1, 18.2, 18.2x75, 18.3, or 18.4
  3. Verify device is NG-RE platform
    From 'show vmhost status' output, confirm the device is using Next-Generation Routing Engine (NG-RE). The output typically shows vmhost details including the host OS information.
    Affected if Device runs NG-RE with vmhost enabled

Device is affected if it supports vmhost (show vmhost status works), runs NG-RE, and runs any Junos version from 16.1 through 18.4.

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
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Upgrade Junos OS to the specified patched versions for each branch (16.1R7-S6+, 16.2R2-S11+, 17.1R3+, etc.) on affected NG-RE devices. Identify affected devices using 'show vmhost status'; if command is unsupported, device is not vulnerable.

Fix this in Junos Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation6.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
16.0 hours of engineering $2,840
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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-2020-1619 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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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
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