# CVE-2023-22392: Denial of service in Junos OS

> An adjacent attacker can cause a denial of service by sending unsupported flow-routes that trigger a memory leak in the Packet Forwarding Engine.

- **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:** 12 Oct 2023
- **Updated:** 2 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-rfgp-826j-vp9f

## What is CVE-2023-22392?

CVE-2023-22392 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Juniper Junos, published on 12 Oct 2023. 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 Packet Forwarding Engine (PFE) of Juniper Networks Junos OS allows an adjacent, unauthenticated attacker to cause a Denial of Service (DoS).

PTX3000, PTX5000, QFX10000, PTX1000, PTX10002, and PTX10004, PTX10008 and PTX10016 with LC110x FPCs do not support certain flow-routes. Once a flow-route is received over an established BGP session and an attempt is made to install the resulting filter into the PFE, FPC heap memory is leaked. The FPC heap memory can be monitored using the CLI command "show chassis fpc".

The following syslog messages can be observed if the respective filter derived from a flow-route cannot be installed.

expr_dfw_sfm_range_add:661 SFM packet-length Unable to get a sfm entry for updating the hw
expr_dfw_hw_sfm_add:750 Unable to add the filter secondarymatch to the hardware
expr_dfw_base_hw_add:52 Failed to add h/w sfm data.
expr_dfw_base_hw_create:114 Failed to add h/w data.
expr_dfw_base_pfe_inst_create:241 Failed to create base inst for sfilter 0 on PFE 0 for __flowspec_default_inet__
expr_dfw_flt_inst_change:1368 Failed to create __flowspec_default_inet__ on PFE 0
expr_dfw_hw_pgm_fnum:465 dfw_pfe_inst_old not found for pfe_index 0!
expr_dfw_bp_pgm_flt_num:548 Failed to pgm bind-point in hw: generic failure
expr_dfw_bp_topo_handler:1102 Failed to program fnum.
expr_dfw_entry_process_change:679 Failed to change instance for filter __flowspec_default_inet__.
This issue affects Juniper Networks Junos OS:

on PTX1000, PTX10002, and PTX10004, PTX10008 and PTX10016 with LC110x FPCs:

  *  All versions prior to 20.4R3-S5;
  *  21.1 versions prior to 21.1R3-S4;
  *  21.2 versions prior to 21.2R3-S2;
  *  21.3 versions prior to 21.3R3;
  *  21.4 versions prior to 21.4R2-S2, 21.4R3;
  *  22.1 versions prior to 22.1R1-S2, 22.1R2.

on PTX3000, PTX5000, QFX10000:

  *  All versions prior to 20.4R3-S8;
  *  21.1 version 21.1R1 and later versions;
  *  21.2 versions prior to 21.2R3-S6;
  *  21.3 versions prior to 21.3R3-S5;
  *  21.4 versions prior to 21.4R3-S4;
  *  22.1 versions prior to 22.1R3-S3
  *  22.2 versions prior to 22.2R3-S1
  *  22.3 versions prior to 22.3R2-S2, 22.3R3
  *  22.4 versions prior to 22.4R2.

Weakness: CWE-401 (Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-22392?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Juniper Junos.

## How do I fix CVE-2023-22392?

No fix has been published for CVE-2023-22392 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2023-22392 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-22392 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-2023-22392 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-22392 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Juniper Junos, published on 12 Oct 2023. 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-2023-22392 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-2023-22392/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-22392/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-22392
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-22392
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-22392

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-22392/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.