CVE-2020-1679 Denial of service in Junos OS
Attackers can cause a denial of service by sending malformed packets to Juniper PTX/QFX devices with specific tunnel-observation configurations enabled.
- 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-2020-1679?
CVE-2020-1679 is a high-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 PTX and QFX Series devices with packet sampling configured using tunnel-observation mpls-over-udp, sampling of a malformed packet can cause the Kernel Routing Table (KRT) queue to become stuck. KRT is the module within the Routing Process Daemon (RPD) that synchronized the routing tables with the forwarding tables in the kernel. This table is then synchronized to the Packet Forwarding Engine (PFE) via the KRT queue. Thus, when KRT queue become stuck, it can lead to unexpected packet forwarding issues. An administrator can monitor the following command to check if there is the KRT queue is stuck: user@device > show krt state ... Number of async queue entries: 65007 <--- this value keep on increasing. When this issue occurs, the following message might appear in the /var/log/messages: DATE DEVICE kernel: %KERN-3: rt_pfe_veto: Too many delayed route/nexthop unrefs. Op 2 err 55, rtsm_id 5:-1, msg type 2 DATE DEVICE kernel: %KERN-3: rt_pfe_veto: Memory usage of M_RTNEXTHOP type = (0) Max size possible for M_RTNEXTHOP type = (7297134592) Current delayed unref = (60000), Current unique delayed unref = (18420), Max delayed unref on this platform = (40000) Current delayed weight unref = (60000) Max delayed weight unref on this platform= (400000) curproc = rpd This issue affects Juniper Networks Junos OS on PTX/QFX Series: 17.2X75 versions prior to 17.2X75-D105; 18.1 versions prior to 18.1R3-S11; 18.2 versions prior to 18.2R3-S5; 18.2X75 versions prior to 18.2X75-D420, 18.2X75-D53, 18.2X75-D65; 18.3 versions prior to 18.3R2-S4, 18.3R3-S3; 18.4 versions prior to 18.4R1-S7, 18.4R2-S5, 18.4R3-S4; 19.1 versions prior to 19.1R2-S2, 19.1R3-S2; 19.2 versions prior to 19.2R1-S5, 19.2R3; 19.3 versions prior to 19.3R2-S3, 19.3R3; 19.4 versions prior to 19.4R1-S2, 19.4R2-S1, 19.4R3; 20.1 versions prior to 20.1R1-S2, 20.1R2. This issue does not affect Juniper Networks Junos OS prior to 18.1R1.
Weakness: CWE-20
Which versions are affected by CVE-2020-1679?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Juniper Junos.
How do I fix CVE-2020-1679?
No fix has been published for CVE-2020-1679 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-2020-1679 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-1679 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-j3g2-c2cf-7jfm.