# CVE-2020-1678: Junos OS and Junos OS Evolved: RPD can crash due to a slow memory leak.

> Attackers can crash the routing process by sending specific BGP packets, causing a memory leak in Junos OS devices with EVPN configured.

- **Severity:** Medium 6.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 16 Oct 2020
- **Updated:** 16 Sep 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-4w73-g2f7-3g9h

## What is CVE-2020-1678?

CVE-2020-1678 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Juniper Junos, published on 16 Oct 2020. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

On Juniper Networks Junos OS and Junos OS Evolved platforms with EVPN configured, receipt of specific BGP packets causes a slow memory leak. If the memory is exhausted the rpd process might crash. If the issue occurs, the memory leak could be seen by executing the "show task memory detail | match policy | match evpn" command multiple times to check if memory (Alloc Blocks value) is increasing. root@device> show task memory detail | match policy | match evpn ------------------------ Allocator Memory Report ------------------------ Name | Size | Alloc DTXP Size | Alloc Blocks | Alloc Bytes | MaxAlloc Blocks | MaxAlloc Bytes Policy EVPN Params 20 24 3330678 79936272 3330678 79936272 root@device> show task memory detail | match policy | match evpn ------------------------ Allocator Memory Report ------------------------ Name | Size | Alloc DTXP Size | Alloc Blocks | Alloc Bytes | MaxAlloc Blocks | MaxAlloc Bytes Policy EVPN Params 20 24 36620255 878886120 36620255 878886120 This issue affects: Juniper Networks Junos OS 19.4 versions prior to 19.4R2; 20.1 versions prior to 20.1R1-S4, 20.1R2; Juniper Networks Junos OS Evolved: 19.4 versions; 20.1 versions prior to 20.1R1-S4-EVO, 20.1R2-EVO; 20.2 versions prior to 20.2R1-EVO; This issue does not affect: Juniper Networks Junos OS releases prior to 19.4R1. Juniper Networks Junos OS Evolved releases prior to 19.4R1-EVO.

Weakness: CWE-401 (Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime), CWE-400 (Uncontrolled Resource Consumption)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2020-1678?

It affects 2 products.


Products: Juniper Junos, Juniper Junos Os Evolved.

## How do I fix CVE-2020-1678?

No fix has been published for CVE-2020-1678 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2020-1678 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-1678 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-2020-1678 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2020-1678 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Juniper Junos, published on 16 Oct 2020. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-1678 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-2020-1678/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-1678/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2020-1678
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-1678
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2020-1678

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-1678/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.