CVE-2022-22172 Junos OS and Junos OS Evolved: An l2cpd memory leak can occur when specific LLDP packets are received leading to a DoS
An unauthenticated adjacent attacker can cause a memory leak in l2cpd via specific LLDP packets, leading to memory exhaustion and denial of service.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- None listed
What is CVE-2022-22172?
CVE-2022-22172 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Juniper Junos, published on 19 Jan 2022. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Official description
A Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime vulnerability in the Layer-2 control protocols daemon (l2cpd) of Juniper Networks Junos OS and Junos OS Evolved allows an unauthenticated adjacent attacker to cause a memory leak. Continued exploitation can lead to memory exhaustion and thereby a Denial of Service (DoS). This issue occurs when specific LLDP packets are received. The impact of the l2cpd cores is that if any of the stp protocols (rstp, mstp or vstp) is used then stp re-converges and traffic loss will occur during that time. Also if any services depend on LLDP state (like PoE or VoIP device recognition) then these will also be affected. The memory utilization of the L2CPd process can be monitored with the following command: user@host> show system processes extensive | match l2cpd 1234 root 52 0 521M 43412K RUN 1 4:02 34.47% l2cpd This issue affects: Juniper Networks Junos OS 18.4 version 18.4R2-S4 and later versions prior to 18.4R2-S10. 19.2 versions prior to 19.2R1-S8, 19.2R3-S4; 19.3 versions prior to 19.3R3-S5; 19.4 versions prior to 19.4R3-S7; 20.1 versions prior to 20.1R3-S3; 20.2 versions prior to 20.2R3-S2; 20.3 versions prior to 20.3R3-S1; 20.4 versions prior to 20.4R3; 21.1 versions prior to 21.1R2-S2, 21.1R3; 21.2 versions prior to 21.2R2; Juniper Networks Junos OS Evolved All versions prior to 20.4R3-S2-EVO; 21.1 version 21.1R1-EVO and later versions; 21.2 versions prior to 21.2R2-EVO. This issue does not affect: Juniper Networks Junos OS 19.1 version 19.1R1 and later versions.
Weakness: CWE-401
Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-22172?
It affects 2 products.
Products include Juniper Junos, Juniper Junos Os Evolved.
How do I fix CVE-2022-22172?
No fix has been published for CVE-2022-22172 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-2022-22172 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-22172 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-v6f8-xxj7-93g3.