# CVE-2021-0257: Denial of service in Junos OS

> Layer 2 events on CE devices cause memory leaks in Juniper MX/EX9200 MPCs, leading to MPC restarts and temporary traffic interruption.

- **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:** 22 Apr 2021
- **Updated:** 17 Sep 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-gcm7-8qcf-55m9

## What is CVE-2021-0257?

CVE-2021-0257 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Juniper Junos, published on 22 Apr 2021. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

On Juniper Networks MX Series and EX9200 Series platforms with Trio-based MPCs (Modular Port Concentrators) where Integrated Routing and Bridging (IRB) interfaces are configured and mapped to a VPLS instance or a Bridge-Domain, certain Layer 2 network events at Customer Edge (CE) devices may cause memory leaks in the MPC of Provider Edge (PE) devices which can cause an out of memory condition and MPC restart. When this issue occurs, there will be temporary traffic interruption until the MPC is restored. An administrator can use the following CLI command to monitor the status of memory usage level of the MPC: user@device> show system resource-monitor fpc FPC Resource Usage Summary Free Heap Mem Watermark : 20 % Free NH Mem Watermark : 20 % Free Filter Mem Watermark : 20 % * - Watermark reached Slot # % Heap Free RTT Average RTT 1 87 PFE # % ENCAP mem Free % NH mem Free % FW mem Free 0 NA 88 99 1 NA 89 99 When the issue is occurring, the value of “% NH mem Free” will go down until the MPC restarts. This issue affects MX Series and EX9200 Series with Trio-based PFEs (Packet Forwarding Engines), including MX-MPC1-3D, MX-MPC1E-3D, MX-MPC2-3D, MX-MPC2E-3D, MPC-3D-16XGE, and CHAS-MXxx Series MPCs. No other products or platforms are affected by this issue. This issue affects Juniper Networks Junos OS on MX Series, EX9200 Series: 17.3 versions prior to 17.3R3-S10; 17.4 versions prior to 17.4R3-S3; 18.2 versions prior to 18.2R3-S7; 18.3 versions prior to 18.3R3-S4; 18.4 versions prior to 18.4R3-S6; 19.2 versions prior to 19.2R3-S2; 19.3 versions prior to 19.3R3-S1; 19.4 versions prior to 19.4R2-S2, 19.4R3; 20.2 versions prior to 20.2R1-S3, 20.2R2; 20.3 versions prior to 20.3R1-S1,, 20.3R2. This issue does not affect Juniper Networks Junos OS: 17.3 versions prior to 17.3R3-S8; 17.4 versions prior to 17.4R3-S2; 18.1; 18.2 versions prior to 18.2R3-S4; 18.3 versions prior to 18.3R3-S2; 18.4 versions prior to 18.4R3-S1; 19.1; 19.2 versions prior to 19.2R2; 19.3 versions prior to 19.3R3; 19.4 versions prior to 19.4R2.

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

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2021-0257?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Juniper Junos.

## How do I fix CVE-2021-0257?

No fix has been published for CVE-2021-0257 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2021-0257 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2021-0257 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-2021-0257 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2021-0257 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Juniper Junos, published on 22 Apr 2021. 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-2021-0257 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-2021-0257/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-0257/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2021-0257
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-0257
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2021-0257

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-0257/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.