# CVE-2023-22404: Memory corruption in Junos OS

> An authenticated attacker can cause a denial of service in Junos OS by sending a malformed payload to the IPsec daemon, crashing IKE negotiations.

- **Severity:** Medium 6.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 12 Jan 2023
- **Updated:** 7 Apr 2025
- **Also known as:** GHSA-6pj2-5fm2-2pxx

## What is CVE-2023-22404?

CVE-2023-22404 is a medium-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Juniper Junos, published on 12 Jan 2023. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

An Out-of-bounds Write vulnerability in the Internet Key Exchange Protocol daemon (iked) of Juniper Networks Junos OS on SRX series and MX with SPC3 allows an authenticated, network-based attacker to cause a Denial of Service (DoS). iked will crash and restart, and the tunnel will not come up when a peer sends a specifically formatted payload during the negotiation. This will impact other IKE negotiations happening at the same time. Continued receipt of this specifically formatted payload will lead to continuous crashing of iked and thereby the inability for any IKE negotiations to take place. Note that this payload is only processed after the authentication has successfully completed. So the issue can only be exploited by an attacker who can successfully authenticate. This issue affects Juniper Networks Junos OS on SRX Series, and MX Series with SPC3: All versions prior to 19.3R3-S7; 19.4 versions prior to 19.4R3-S9; 20.2 versions prior to 20.2R3-S5; 20.3 versions prior to 20.3R3-S5; 20.4 versions prior to 20.4R3-S4; 21.1 versions prior to 21.1R3-S3; 21.2 versions prior to 21.2R3-S2; 21.3 versions prior to 21.3R3-S1; 21.4 versions prior to 21.4R2-S1, 21.4R3; 22.1 versions prior to 22.1R1-S2, 22.1R2.

Weakness: CWE-787 (Out-of-bounds Write)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-22404?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Juniper Junos.

## How do I fix CVE-2023-22404?

No fix has been published for CVE-2023-22404 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2023-22404 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-22404 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-2023-22404 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-22404 is a medium-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Juniper Junos, published on 12 Jan 2023. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-22404 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-2023-22404/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-22404/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-22404
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-22404
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-22404

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-22404/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.