# CVE-2023-28971: Paragon Active Assurance: Enabling the timescaledb enables IP forwarding

> Enabling the optional timescaledb feature on on-prem Control Centers bypasses firewall rules, allowing Test Agents to communicate with restricted internal endpoints.

- **Severity:** High 7.2 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 17 Apr 2023
- **Updated:** 6 Feb 2025
- **Also known as:** GHSA-749h-rrm4-w97r

## What is CVE-2023-28971?

CVE-2023-28971 is a high-severity vulnerability in Juniper Networks Paragon Active Assurance, published on 17 Apr 2023. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

An Improper Restriction of Communication Channel to Intended Endpoints vulnerability in the timescaledb feature of Juniper Networks Paragon Active Assurance (PAA) (Formerly Netrounds) allows an attacker to bypass existing firewall rules and limitations used to restrict internal communcations. The Test Agents (TA) Appliance connects to the Control Center (CC) using OpenVPN. TA's are assigned an internal IP address in the 100.70.0.0/16 range. Firewall rules exists to limit communication from TA's to the CC to specific services only. OpenVPN is configured to not allow direct communication between Test Agents in the OpenVPN application itself, and routing is normally not enabled on the server running the CC application. The timescaledb feature is installed as an optional package on the Control Center. When the timescaledb container is started, this causes side-effects by bypassing the existing firewall rules and limitations for Test Agent communications. Note: This issue only affects customers hosting their own on-prem Control Center. The Paragon Active Assurance Software as a Service (SaaS) is not affected by this vulnerability since the timescaledb service is not enabled. This issue affects all on-prem versions of Juniper Networks Paragon Active Assurance prior to 4.1.2.

Weakness: CWE-923 (Improper Restriction of Communication Channel to Intended Endpoints)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-28971?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Juniper Paragon Active Assurance.

## How do I fix CVE-2023-28971?

No fix has been published for CVE-2023-28971 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2023-28971 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-28971 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2023-28971 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-28971 is a high-severity vulnerability in Juniper Networks Paragon Active Assurance, published on 17 Apr 2023. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-28971 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Juniper Networks Paragon Active Assurance. 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-2023-28971/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-28971/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-28971
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-28971
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-28971

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-28971/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.