# CVE-2023-28982: Denial of service in Junos OS

> An unauthenticated attacker can cause a denial of service by triggering a memory leak in the routing daemon during frequent BGP route updates in rib sharding scenarios.

- **Severity:** High 7.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/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:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 17 Apr 2023
- **Updated:** 5 Feb 2025
- **Also known as:** GHSA-jq9m-h332-223f

## What is CVE-2023-28982?

CVE-2023-28982 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Juniper Junos, published on 17 Apr 2023. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

A Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime vulnerability in the routing protocol daemon of Juniper Networks Junos OS and Junos OS Evolved allows an unauthenticated, network based attacker to cause a Denial of Service (DoS). In a BGP rib sharding scenario, when an attribute of an active BGP route is updated memory will leak. As rpd memory usage increases over time the rpd process will eventually run out of memory, crash, and restart. The memory utilization can be monitored with the following CLI commands: show task memory show system processes extensive | match rpd This issue affects: Juniper Networks Junos OS 20.3 versions prior to 20.3R3-S2; 20.4 versions prior to 20.4R3-S6; 21.1 versions prior to 21.1R3; 21.2 versions prior to 21.2R3; 21.3 versions prior to 21.3R2. Juniper Networks Junos OS Evolved 20.3-EVO version 20.3R1-EVO and later versions; 20.4-EVO versions prior to 20.4R3-S6-EVO; 21.2-EVO versions prior to 21.2R3-EVO; 21.3-EVO versions prior to 21.3R2-EVO.

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

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-28982?

It affects 2 products.


Products: Juniper Junos, Juniper Junos Os Evolved.

## How do I fix CVE-2023-28982?

No fix has been published for CVE-2023-28982 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2023-28982 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-28982 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-2023-28982 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-28982 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Juniper Junos, 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-2023-28982 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-2023-28982/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-28982/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-28982
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-28982
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-28982

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-28982/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.