CVE-2021-0286 Junos OS Evolved: Specially crafted packets may cause the AFT manager process to crash and restart
Attackers can crash the AFT manager process via crafted packets, causing a sustained Denial of Service on Juniper network devices.
- 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-2021-0286?
CVE-2021-0286 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Juniper Junos Os Evolved, published on 15 Jul 2021. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Official description
A vulnerability in the handling of exceptional conditions in Juniper Networks Junos OS Evolved (EVO) allows an attacker to send specially crafted packets to the device, causing the Advanced Forwarding Toolkit manager (evo-aftmand-bt or evo-aftmand-zx) process to crash and restart, impacting all traffic going through the FPC, resulting in a Denial of Service (DoS). Continued receipt and processing of these packets will create a sustained Denial of Service (DoS) condition. Following messages will be logged prior to the crash: Feb 2 10:14:39 fpc0 evo-aftmand-bt[16263]: [Error] Nexthop: Failed to get fwd nexthop for nexthop:32710470974358 label:1089551617 for session:18 probe:35 Feb 2 10:14:39 fpc0 evo-aftmand-bt[16263]: [Error] Nexthop: Failed to get fwd nexthop for nexthop:19241453497049 label:1089551617 for session:18 probe:37 Feb 2 10:14:39 fpc0 evo-aftmand-bt[16263]: [Error] Nexthop: Failed to get fwd nexthop for nexthop:19241453497049 label:1089551617 for session:18 probe:44 Feb 2 10:14:39 fpc0 evo-aftmand-bt[16263]: [Error] Nexthop: Failed to get fwd nexthop for nexthop:32710470974358 label:1089551617 for session:18 probe:47 Feb 2 10:14:39 fpc0 audit[16263]: ANOM_ABEND auid=4294967295 uid=0 gid=0 ses=4294967295 pid=16263 comm="EvoAftManBt-mai" exe="/usr/sbin/evo-aftmand-bt" sig=11 Feb 2 10:14:39 fpc0 kernel: audit: type=1701 audit(1612260879.272:17): auid=4294967295 uid=0 gid=0 ses=4294967295 pid=16263 comm="EvoAftManBt-mai" exe="/usr/sbin/evo-aftmand-bt" sig=1 This issue affects Juniper Networks Junos OS Evolved: All versions prior to 20.4R2-EVO; 21.1 versions prior to 21.1R2-EVO.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2021-0286?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Juniper Junos Os Evolved.
How do I fix CVE-2021-0286?
No fix has been published for CVE-2021-0286 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-2021-0286 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2021-0286 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Juniper Junos Os Evolved
- CVE-2026-21902 Junos OS Evolved: PTX Series: A vulnerability allows a unauthenticated, network-based attacker to execute code as root
- CVE-2023-28983 Junos OS Evolved: Shell Injection vulnerability in the gNOI server
- CVE-2025-21599 Denial of service in Junos OS Evolved
- CVE-2024-47502 Junos OS Evolved: TCP session state is not always cleared on the Routing Engine leading to DoS
- CVE-2024-39531 Junos OS Evolved: ACX 7000 Series: Protocol specific DDoS configuration affects other protocols
Sources
Also known as GHSA-jq9h-7vhv-whc7.