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JunosOperating system · Juniper

CVE-2023-22404

MEDIUM · 6.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2023-01-13
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 19.3 or later.
See remediation →
71/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable 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
An Out-of-bounds Write vulnerability in the Internet Key Exchange Protocol daemon (iked) of Juniper Networks Junos OS on SRX series and MX with SPC3 allows an authenticated, network-based attacker to cause a Denial of Service (DoS). iked will crash and restart, and the tunnel will not come up when a peer sends a specifically formatted payload during the negotiation. This will impact other IKE negotiations happening at the same time. Continued receipt of this specifically formatted payload will lead to continuous crashing of iked and thereby the inability for any IKE negotiations to take place. Note that this payload is only processed after the authentication has successfully completed. So the issue can only be exploited by an attacker who can successfully authenticate. This issue affects Juniper Networks Junos OS on SRX Series, and MX Series with SPC3: All versions prior to 19.3R3-S7; 19.4 versions prior to 19.4R3-S9; 20.2 versions prior to 20.2R3-S5; 20.3 versions prior to 20.3R3-S5; 20.4 versions prior to 20.4R3-S4; 21.1 versions prior to 21.1R3-S3; 21.2 versions prior to 21.2R3-S2; 21.3 versions prior to 21.3R3-S1; 21.4 versions prior to 21.4R2-S1, 21.4R3; 22.1 versions prior to 22.1R1-S2, 22.1R2.

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

An out-of-bounds write vulnerability in the Internet Key Exchange Protocol daemon (iked) of Juniper Junos OS on SRX and MX series allows an authenticated, network-based attacker to send a specifically formatted IKE payload after successful authentication, causing iked to crash and restart. This disrupts the affected tunnel and concurrent IKE negotiations, and continued exploitation leads to persistent DoS.

MitigationApply the appropriate Junos OS software update for SRX series and MX series with SPC3 as specified in the Juniper advisory (versions prior to those listed in the fixed releases).

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:< 19.3= 19.3= 19.4= 20.2= 20.3= 20.4= 21.1= 21.2= 21.3= 21.4= 22.1

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
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/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 checks

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

  1. Identify device platform
    Run 'show chassis hardware' or check hardware inventory to confirm the device is an SRX series or MX series router
    Affected if Device is not SRX or MX series (this CVE only affects those platforms)
  2. Check Junos OS version
    Run 'show version' or 'show version detail' to obtain the installed Junos OS version
    Affected if Version matches any of these: 19.3, 19.4, 20.2, 20.3, 20.4, 21.1, 21.2, 21.3, 21.4, 22.1, or is earlier than 19.3
  3. Verify iked daemon is running
    Run 'show system processes iked' or check 'system processes iked' configuration to confirm the IKE daemon is active
    Affected if iked is not running (the vulnerability requires iked to be active)
  4. Confirm IKE configuration exists
    Run 'show configuration security ike' or check for active IKE policies/gateways
    Affected if No IKE configuration exists (the vulnerability requires IKE to be configured and accepting connections)
  5. Check for IKE gateway authentication method
    Run 'show configuration security ike gateway' to see authentication configuration
    Affected if Pre-shared key or certificate-based authentication is configured (the attacker needs successful authentication before exploiting)

A user is affected if they run Junos OS versions 19.3 through 22.1 on SRX or MX series with iked enabled and IKE gateways configured, allowing an authenticated attacker to trigger the out-of-bounds write via specially crafted IKE packets.

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.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 19.3 or later
Fixed in 19.3
Interim mitigation

Apply the appropriate Junos OS software update for SRX series and MX series with SPC3 as specified in the Juniper advisory (versions prior to those listed in the fixed releases).

Recommended fix High confidence

Upgrade to 19.3R3-S7 / 19.4R3-S9 / 20.2R3-S5 / 20.3R3-S5 / 20.4R3-S4 / 21.1R3-S3 / 21.2R3-S2 / 21.3R3-S1 / 21.4R3 / 22.1R2 (or later stable release) depending on current branch

  1. 1. Identify the current Junos OS version running on the affected SRX Series or MX Series with SPC3 device using 'show version' command.
  2. 2. Determine the appropriate target version based on the current branch: for 19.3.x upgrade to 19.3R3-S7 or later; for 19.4.x upgrade to 19.4R3-S9 or later; for 20.2.x upgrade to 20.2R3-S5 or later; for 20.3.x upgrade to 20.3R3-S5 or later; for 20.4.x upgrade to 20.4R3-S4 or later; for 21.1.x upgrade to 21.1R3-S3 or later; for 21.2.x upgrade to 21.2R3-S2 or later; for 21.3.x upgrade to 21.3R3-S1 o
  3. 3. Download the appropriate Junos OS software package from the Juniper Networks support portal (kb.juniper.net).
  4. 4. Transfer the software package to the device using SCP or FTP.
  5. 5. Install the software upgrade using the 'request system software add <package-name>' command.
  6. 6. Reboot the device using 'request system reboot' command to complete the installation.
  7. 7. After reboot, verify the new version is installed using 'show version' and confirm iked is running using 'show system processes | match iked'.
  8. 8. Verify IKE negotiations are functioning normally by checking 'show security ike security-associations'.
Caveat Standard Junos upgrade considerations apply - review release notes for any changes to IKE configuration or deprecations; test in lab environment before production deployment

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Junos Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation8.0 h
  • Implementation16.0 h
  • Testing12.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
40.0 hours of engineering $7,000
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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-2023-22404 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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What this is

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