CVE-2020-1627
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 · uneditedA vulnerability in Juniper Networks Junos OS on vMX and MX150 devices may allow an attacker to cause a Denial of Service (DoS) by sending specific packets requiring special processing in microcode that the flow cache can't handle, causing the riot forwarding daemon to crash. By continuously sending the same specific packets, an attacker can repeatedly crash the riot process causing a sustained Denial of Service. Flow cache is specific to vMX based products and the MX150, and is enabled by default in performance mode. This issue can only be triggered by traffic destined to the device. Transit traffic will not cause the riot daemon to crash. When the issue occurs, a core dump and riot log file entry are generated. For example: /var/crash/core.J-UKERN.mpc0.1557255993.3864.gz /home/pfe/RIOT logs: fpc0 riot[1888]: PANIC in lu_reorder_send_packet_postproc(): fpc0 riot[6655]: PANIC in lu_reorder_send_packet_postproc(): This issue affects Juniper Networks Junos OS: 18.1 versions prior to 18.1R3 on vMX and MX150; 18.2 versions prior to 18.2R3 on vMX and MX150; 18.2X75 versions prior to 18.2X75-D60 on vMX and MX150; 18.3 versions prior to 18.3R3 on vMX and MX150; 18.4 versions prior to 18.4R2 on vMX and MX150; 19.1 versions prior to 19.1R2 on vMX and MX150. This issue does not affect Junos OS versions prior to 18.1R1.
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 confidenceA vulnerability in Juniper Networks Junos OS on vMX and MX150 devices allows an attacker to cause Denial of Service by sending specific packets that the flow cache cannot handle, causing the riot forwarding daemon to crash. The attacker can repeatedly send these packets to sustain the DoS. This issue affects specific versions of Junos OS 18.1 through 19.1 on vMX and MX150 devices, and is triggered only by traffic destined to the device.
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= 18.1= 18.2= 18.2x75= 18.3= 18.4= 19.1CVSS 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
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify the device modelRun 'show chassis hardware' or check the device documentation to confirm the model is vMX or MX150Affected if The device is a vMX or MX150; other Juniper devices are not affected by this specific vulnerability
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Check the Junos OS versionRun 'show version' or 'show version detail' to display the installed Junos OS versionAffected if The version matches exactly 18.1, 18.2, 18.2x75, 18.3, 18.4, or 19.1 (including point releases like 18.1R1, 18.2R2, etc.)
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Verify traffic destined to the device triggers the conditionMonitor for crash events in the riot forwarding daemon or check system logs for 'riot' daemon restarts after receiving specific packetsAffected if The device experiences unexpected riot daemon crashes when receiving packets destined to the device interfaces
The device is affected if it is a vMX or MX150 running Junos OS version 18.1, 18.2, 18.2x75, 18.3, 18.4, or 19.1 and receives malicious packets targeting the flow cache handling.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
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 dataApply the appropriate Junos OS patch (18.1R3, 18.2R3, 18.2X75-D60, 18.3R3, 18.4R2, or 19.1R2 or later) to address this vulnerability. Consider disabling flow cache in performance mode as a temporary mitigation if patching is not immediately feasible.
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- Implementation3.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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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 sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2020-1627 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
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