# CVE-2024-21613: Junos OS and Junos OS Evolved: A link flap causes patroot memory leak which leads to rpd crash

> An unauthenticated adjacent attacker can cause a routing daemon crash via memory leak when traffic engineering is enabled, leading to denial of service.

- **Severity:** Medium 6.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:A/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:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 12 Jan 2024
- **Updated:** 17 Jun 2025
- **Also known as:** GHSA-54jf-p4cr-5xj6

## What is CVE-2024-21613?

CVE-2024-21613 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Juniper Junos, published on 12 Jan 2024. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

A Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime vulnerability in Routing Protocol Daemon (RPD) of Juniper Networks Junos OS and Junos OS Evolved allows an unauthenticated, adjacent attacker to cause an rpd crash, leading to Denial of Service (DoS).

On all Junos OS and Junos OS Evolved platforms, when traffic engineering is enabled for OSPF or ISIS, and a link flaps, a patroot memory leak is observed. This memory leak, over time, will lead to an rpd crash and restart.

The memory usage can be monitored using the below command.

user@host> show task memory detail | match patroot
This issue affects:

Juniper Networks Junos OS

  *  All versions earlier than 21.2R3-S3;
  *  21.3 versions earlier than 21.3R3-S5;
  *  21.4 versions earlier than 21.4R3-S3;
  *  22.1 versions earlier than 22.1R3;
  *  22.2 versions earlier than 22.2R3.

Juniper Networks Junos OS Evolved

  *  All versions earlier than 21.3R3-S5-EVO;
  *  21.4 versions earlier than 21.4R3-EVO;
  *  22.1 versions earlier than 22.1R3-EVO;
  *  22.2 versions earlier than 22.2R3-EVO.

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

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-21613?

It affects 2 products.


Products: Juniper Junos, Juniper Junos Os Evolved.

## How do I fix CVE-2024-21613?

No fix has been published for CVE-2024-21613 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2024-21613 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-21613 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-2024-21613 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2024-21613 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Juniper Junos, published on 12 Jan 2024. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-21613 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-2024-21613/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-21613/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2024-21613
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-21613
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2024-21613

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-21613/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.