# CVE-2021-0207: Denial of service in Junos OS

> Attackers can cause denial of service by sending specific non-standard traffic that Junos OS devices incorrectly discard instead of forwarding.

- **Severity:** High 7.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/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:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 15 Jan 2021
- **Updated:** 17 Sep 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-qhwr-mfcx-qrr9

## What is CVE-2021-0207?

CVE-2021-0207 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Juniper Junos, published on 15 Jan 2021. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

An improper interpretation conflict of certain data between certain software components within the Juniper Networks Junos OS devices does not allow certain traffic to pass through the device upon receipt from an ingress interface filtering certain specific types of traffic which is then being redirected to an egress interface on a different VLAN. This causes a Denial of Service (DoS) to those clients sending these particular types of traffic. Such traffic being sent by a client may appear genuine, but is non-standard in nature and should be considered as potentially malicious, and can be targeted to the device, or destined through it for the issue to occur. This issues affects IPv4 and IPv6 traffic. An indicator of compromise may be found by checking log files. You may find that traffic on the input interface has 100% of traffic flowing into the device, yet the egress interface shows 0 pps leaving the device. For example: [show interfaces "interface" statistics detail] Output between two interfaces would reveal something similar to: Ingress, first interface: -------------------- Interface Link Input packets (pps) Output packets (pps) et-0/0/0 Up 9999999999 (9999) 1 (0) -------------------- Egress, second interface: -------------------- Interface Link Input packets (pps) Output packets (pps) et-0/0/1 Up 0 (0) 9999999999 (0) -------------------- Dropped packets will not show up in DDoS monitoring/protection counters as issue is not caused by anti-DDoS protection mechanisms. This issue affects: Juniper Networks Junos OS: 17.3 versions prior to 17.3R3-S7 on NFX250, QFX5K Series, EX4600; 17.4 versions prior to 17.4R2-S11, 17.4R3-S3 on NFX250, QFX5K Series, EX4600; 18.1 versions prior to 18.1R3-S9 on NFX250, QFX5K Series, EX2300 Series, EX3400 Series, EX4600; 18.2 versions prior to 18.2R3-S3 on NFX250, QFX5K Series, EX2300 Series, EX3400 Series, EX4300 Multigigabit, EX4600; 18.3 versions prior to 18.3R3-S1 on NFX250, QFX5K Series, EX2300 Series, EX3400 Series, EX4300 Multigigabit, EX4600 Series; 18.4 versions prior to 18.4R1-S5, 18.4R2-S3, 18.4R3 on NFX250, QFX5K Series, EX2300 Series, EX3400 Series, EX4300 Multigigabit, EX4600 Series; 19.1 versions prior to 19.1R1-S5, 19.1R2-S1, 19.1R3 on NFX250, QFX5K Series, EX2300 Series, EX3400 Series, EX4300 Multigigabit, EX4600 Series; 19.2 versions prior to 19.2R1-S5, 19.2R2 on NFX250, QFX5K Series, EX2300 Series, EX3400 Series, EX4300 Multigigabit, EX4600 Series; 19.3 versions prior to 19.3R2-S3, 19.3R3 on NFX250, QFX5K Series, EX2300 Series, EX3400 Series, EX4300 Multigigabit, EX4600 Series; 19.4 versions prior to 19.4R1-S2, 19.4R2 on NFX250, NFX350, QFX5K Series, EX2300 Series, EX3400 Series, EX4300 Multigigabit, EX4600 Series. This issue does not affect Junos OS releases prior to 17.2R2.

Weakness: CWE-436 (Interpretation Conflict), CWE-115 (Misinterpretation of Input)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2021-0207?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Juniper Junos.

## How do I fix CVE-2021-0207?

No fix has been published for CVE-2021-0207 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2021-0207 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2021-0207 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-2021-0207 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2021-0207 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Juniper Junos, published on 15 Jan 2021. 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-2021-0207 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-2021-0207/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-0207/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2021-0207
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-0207
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2021-0207

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-0207/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.
