CVE-2020-1661 Junos OS: jdhcpd process crash when forwarding a malformed DHCP packet.
Attackers can cause a denial of service on Junos OS devices configured as DHCP forwarders by sending malformed DHCPv4 packets.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- None listed
What is CVE-2020-1661?
CVE-2020-1661 is a medium-severity denial of service 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
On Juniper Networks Junos OS devices configured as a DHCP forwarder, the Juniper Networks Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol Daemon (jdhcp) process might crash when receiving a malformed DHCP packet. This issue only affects devices configured as DHCP forwarder with forward-only option, that forward specified DHCP client packets, without creating a new subscriber session. The jdhcpd daemon automatically restarts without intervention, but continuous receipt of the malformed DHCP packet will repeatedly crash jdhcpd, leading to an extended Denial of Service (DoS) condition. This issue can be triggered only by DHCPv4, it cannot be triggered by DHCPv6. This issue affects Juniper Networks Junos OS: 12.3 versions prior to 12.3R12-S16; 12.3X48 versions prior to 12.3X48-D105 on SRX Series; 14.1X53 versions prior to 14.1X53-D60 on EX and QFX Series; 15.1 versions prior to 15.1R7-S7; 15.1X49 versions prior to 15.1X49-D221, 15.1X49-D230 on SRX Series; 15.1X53 versions prior to 15.1X53-D593 on EX2300/EX3400; 16.1 versions prior to 16.1R7-S5.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2020-1661?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Juniper Junos.
How do I fix CVE-2020-1661?
No fix has been published for CVE-2020-1661 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.
Upgrade, then put limits on request size, rate and nesting depth so one client cannot exhaust the service. More about Denial of service.
Is CVE-2020-1661 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-1661 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Juniper Junos
- CVE-2023-36845 Juniper Junos OS EX Series and SRX Series PHP External Variable Modification
- CVE-2020-1631 Juniper Junos OS Path Traversal
- CVE-2025-21590 Juniper Junos OS Improper Isolation or Compartmentalization
- CVE-2023-36851 Juniper Junos OS SRX Series Missing Authentication for Critical Function
- CVE-2023-36844 Juniper Junos OS EX Series PHP External Variable Modification
Sources
Also known as GHSA-6jc4-v9x6-xhg3.