CVE-2024-21604 Junos OS Evolved: A high rate of specific traffic will cause a complete system outage
An unauthenticated attacker can cause a complete system outage in Junos OS Evolved by sending high-rate specific traffic, requiring an upgrade to fix.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- None listed
What is CVE-2024-21604?
CVE-2024-21604 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Juniper Junos Os Evolved, published on 12 Jan 2024. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Official description
An Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling vulnerability in the kernel of Juniper Networks Junos OS Evolved allows an unauthenticated, network-based attacker to cause a Denial of Service (DoS).
If a high rate of specific valid packets are processed by the routing engine (RE) this will lead to a loss of connectivity of the RE with other components of the chassis and thereby a complete and persistent system outage. Please note that a carefully designed lo0 firewall filter will block or limit these packets which should prevent this issue from occurring.
The following log messages can be seen when this issue occurs:
<host> kernel: nf_conntrack: nf_conntrack: table full, dropping packet This issue affects Juniper Networks Junos OS Evolved:
* All versions earlier than 20.4R3-S7-EVO; * 21.2R1-EVO and later versions; * 21.4-EVO versions earlier than 21.4R3-S5-EVO; * 22.1-EVO versions earlier than 22.1R3-S2-EVO; * 22.2-EVO versions earlier than 22.2R3-EVO; * 22.3-EVO versions earlier than 22.3R2-EVO; * 22.4-EVO versions earlier than 22.4R2-EVO.
Weakness: CWE-770
Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-21604?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Juniper Junos Os Evolved.
How do I fix CVE-2024-21604?
No fix has been published for CVE-2024-21604 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-2024-21604 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-21604 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Juniper Junos Os Evolved
- CVE-2026-21902 Junos OS Evolved: PTX Series: A vulnerability allows a unauthenticated, network-based attacker to execute code as root
- CVE-2023-28983 Junos OS Evolved: Shell Injection vulnerability in the gNOI server
- CVE-2025-21599 Denial of service in Junos OS Evolved
- CVE-2024-47502 Junos OS Evolved: TCP session state is not always cleared on the Routing Engine leading to DoS
- CVE-2024-39531 Junos OS Evolved: ACX 7000 Series: Protocol specific DDoS configuration affects other protocols
Sources
Also known as GHSA-h4g9-rx7v-v6rf.