# CVE-2020-1660: Junos OS: MX Series: Receipt of specific packets can cause services card to restart when DNS filtering is configured.

> Attackers can crash the services card via specific packets, causing a denial of service and bypassing DNS filtering protections.

- **Severity:** High 8.3 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:L`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 16 Oct 2020
- **Updated:** 16 Sep 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-xcrv-h2x7-7qcc

## What is CVE-2020-1660?

CVE-2020-1660 is a high-severity vulnerability in Juniper Junos, published on 16 Oct 2020. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

When DNS filtering is enabled on Juniper Networks Junos MX Series with one of the following cards MS-PIC, MS-MIC or MS-MPC, an incoming stream of packets processed by the Multiservices PIC Management Daemon (mspmand) process, responsible for managing "URL Filtering service", may crash, causing the Services PIC to restart. While the Services PIC is restarting, all PIC services including DNS filtering service (DNS sink holing) will be bypassed until the Services PIC completes its boot process. This vulnerability might allow an attacker to cause an extended Denial of Service (DoS) attack against the device and to cause clients to be vulnerable to DNS based attacks by malicious DNS servers when they send DNS requests through the device. As a result, devices which were once protected by the DNS Filtering service are no longer protected and at risk of exploitation. This issue affects Juniper Networks Junos OS: 17.3 versions prior to 17.3R3-S8; 18.3 versions prior to 18.3R3-S1; 18.4 versions prior to 18.4R3; 19.1 versions prior to 19.1R3; 19.2 versions prior to 19.2R2; 19.3 versions prior to 19.3R3. This issue does not affect Juniper Networks Junos OS 17.4, 18.1, and 18.2.

Weakness: CWE-362 (Concurrent Execution using Shared Resource with Improper Synchronization)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2020-1660?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Juniper Junos.

## How do I fix CVE-2020-1660?

No fix has been published for CVE-2020-1660 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2020-1660 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-1660 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Juniper Junos

- [CVE-2023-36845](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-36845/): Juniper Junos OS EX Series and SRX Series PHP External Variable Modification (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2020-1631](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-1631/): Juniper Junos OS Path Traversal (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2025-21590](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-21590/): Juniper Junos OS Improper Isolation or Compartmentalization (medium 6.7, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2023-36851](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-36851/): Juniper Junos OS SRX Series Missing Authentication for Critical Function (medium 5.3, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2023-36844](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-36844/): Juniper Junos OS EX Series PHP External Variable Modification (medium 5.3, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2020-1660 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2020-1660 is a high-severity vulnerability in Juniper Junos, published on 16 Oct 2020. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-1660 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Juniper Junos. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-1660/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-1660/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2020-1660
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-1660
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2020-1660

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-1660/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.