# CVE-2023-44188: Junos OS: jkdsd crash due to multiple telemetry requests

> An authenticated attacker can cause a denial of service in Junos OS by flooding telemetry requests, crashing the jkdsd process.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.3 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/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:** 11 Oct 2023
- **Updated:** 2 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-w3pf-28jm-x86v

## What is CVE-2023-44188?

CVE-2023-44188 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Juniper Junos, published on 11 Oct 2023. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

A Time-of-check Time-of-use (TOCTOU) Race Condition vulnerability in telemetry processing of Juniper Networks Junos OS allows a network-based authenticated attacker to flood the system with multiple telemetry requests, causing the Junos Kernel Debugging Streaming Daemon (jkdsd) process to crash, leading to a Denial of Service (DoS). Continued receipt and processing of telemetry requests will repeatedly crash the jkdsd process and sustain the Denial of Service (DoS) condition.

This issue is seen on all Junos platforms. The crash is triggered when multiple telemetry requests come from different collectors. As the load increases, the Dynamic Rendering Daemon (drend) decides to defer processing and continue later, which results in a timing issue accessing stale memory, causing the jkdsd process to crash and restart.

Note: jkdsd is not shipped with SRX Series devices and therefore are not affected by this vulnerability.
This issue affects:

Juniper Networks Junos OS:

  *  20.4 versions prior to 20.4R3-S9;
  *  21.1 versions 21.1R1 and later;
  *  21.2 versions prior to 21.2R3-S6;
  *  21.3 versions prior to 21.3R3-S5;
  *  21.4 versions prior to 21.4R3-S5;
  *  22.1 versions prior to 22.1R3-S4;
  *  22.2 versions prior to 22.2R3-S2;
  *  22.3 versions prior to 22.3R2-S1, 22.3R3-S1;
  *  22.4 versions prior to 22.4R2-S2, 22.4R3;
  *  23.1 versions prior to 23.1R2.

This issue does not affect Juniper Networks Junos OS versions prior to 19.4R1.

Weakness: CWE-367 (Time-of-check Time-of-use (TOCTOU) Race Condition)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-44188?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Juniper Junos.

## How do I fix CVE-2023-44188?

No fix has been published for CVE-2023-44188 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2023-44188 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-44188 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-2023-44188 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-44188 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Juniper Junos, published on 11 Oct 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-2023-44188 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-2023-44188/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-44188/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-44188
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-44188
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-44188

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-44188/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.