CVE-2023-28959 Junos OS: QFX10002: PFE wedges and restarts upon receipt of specific malformed packets

Medium 6.5 Published 17 Apr 2023 Updated 3 Mar 2025

An unauthenticated adjacent attacker can cause a Denial of Service on Juniper QFX10002 switches by sending specific malformed packets.

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-2023-28959?

CVE-2023-28959 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Juniper Junos, published on 17 Apr 2023. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

Official description

An Improper Check or Handling of Exceptional Conditions vulnerability in packet processing of Juniper Networks Junos OS on QFX10002 allows an unauthenticated, adjacent attacker on the local broadcast domain sending a malformed packet to the device, causing all PFEs other than the inbound PFE to wedge and to eventually restart, resulting in a Denial of Service (DoS) condition. Continued receipt and processing of this packet will create a sustained Denial of Service (DoS) condition. This issue can only be triggered by sending a specific malformed packet to the device. Transit traffic does not trigger this issue. An indication of this issue occurring can be seen through the following log messages: fpc0 expr_hostbound_packet_handler: Receive pe 73? fpc0 Cmerror Op Set: PE Chip: PE0[0]: PGQ:misc_intr: 0x00000020: Enqueue of a packet with out-of-range VOQ in 192K-VOQ mode (URI: /fpc/0/pfe/0/cm/0/PE_Chip/0/PECHIP_CMERROR_PGQ_MISC_INT_EVENTS_ENQ_192K_VIOL) The logs list below can also be observed when this issue occurs fpc0 Error: /fpc/0/pfe/0/cm/0/PE_Chip/0/PECHIP_CMERROR_PGQ_MISC_INT_EVENTS_ENQ_192K_VIOL (0x210107), scope: pfe, category: functional, severity: major, module: PE Chip, type: Description for PECHIP_CMERROR_PGQ_MISC_INT_EVENTS_ENQ_192K_VIOL fpc0 Performing action cmalarm for error /fpc/0/pfe/0/cm/0/PE_Chip/0/PECHIP_CMERROR_PGQ_MISC_INT_EVENTS_ENQ_192K_VIOL (0x210107) in module: PE Chip with scope: pfe category: functional level: major fpc0 Error: /fpc/0/pfe/0/cm/0/PE_Chip/0/PECHIP_CMERROR_CM_INT_REG_DCHK_PIPE (0x21011a), scope: pfe, category: functional, severity: fatal, module: PE Chip, type: Description for PECHIP_CMERROR_CM_INT_REG_DCHK_PIPE fpc0 Performing action cmalarm for error /fpc/0/pfe/0/cm/0/PE_Chip/0/PECHIP_CMERROR_CM_INT_REG_DCHK_PIPE (0x21011a) in module: PE Chip with scope: pfe category: functional level: fatal fpc0 Performing action disable-pfe for error /fpc/0/pfe/0/cm/0/PE_Chip/0/PECHIP_CMERROR_CM_INT_REG_DCHK_PIPE (0x21011a) in module: PE Chip with scope: pfe category: functional level: fatal This issue affects Juniper Networks Junos OS on QFX10002: All versions prior to 19.1R3-S10; 19.4 versions prior to 19.4R3-S11; 20.2 versions prior to 20.2R3-S7; 20.4 versions prior to 20.4R3-S6; 21.1 versions prior to 21.1R3-S4; 21.2 versions prior to 21.2R3-S4; 21.3 versions prior to 21.3R3-S3; 21.4 versions prior to 21.4R3-S2; 22.1 versions prior to 22.1R3-S1; 22.2 versions prior to 22.2R2-S1, 22.2R3; 22.3 versions prior to 22.3R1-S2, 22.3R2.

Weakness: CWE-703

Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-28959?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Juniper Junos.

How do I fix CVE-2023-28959?

No fix has been published for CVE-2023-28959 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-2023-28959 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-28959 in the wild and no public exploit code.

All Juniper Junos vulnerabilities

Sources

Also known as GHSA-h5hc-qpqf-p7r8.