CVE-2025-52986 Junos OS and Junos OS Evolved: When RIB sharding is configured each time a show command is executed RPD memory leaks
A local low-privileged user can cause a denial of service by triggering memory leaks in the routing daemon when RIB sharding is enabled.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Any signed-in user
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- None listed
What is CVE-2025-52986?
CVE-2025-52986 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Juniper Junos, published on 11 Jul 2025. 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 the routing protocol daemon (rpd) of Juniper Networks Junos OS and Junos OS Evolved allows a local, low privileged user to cause an impact to the availability of the device.
When RIB sharding is enabled and a user executes one of several routing related 'show' commands, a certain amount of memory is leaked. When all available memory has been consumed rpd will crash and restart.
The leak can be monitored with the CLI command:
show task memory detail | match task_shard_mgmt_cookie
where the allocated memory in bytes can be seen to continuously increase with each exploitation.
This issue affects:
Junos OS:
* all versions before 21.2R3-S9, * 21.4 versions before 21.4R3-S11, * 22.2 versions before 22.2R3-S7, * 22.4 versions before 22.4R3-S7, * 23.2 versions before 23.2R2-S4, * 23.4 versions before 23.4R2-S4, * 24.2 versions before 24.2R2, * 24.4 versions before 24.4R1-S2, 24.4R2;
Junos OS Evolved:
* all versions before 22.2R3-S7-EVO * 22.4-EVO versions before 22.4R3-S7-EVO, * 23.2-EVO versions before 23.2R2-S4-EVO, * 23.4-EVO versions before 23.4R2-S4-EVO, * 24.2-EVO versions before 24.2R2-EVO, * 24.4-EVO versions before 24.4R2-EVO.
Weakness: CWE-401
Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-52986?
It affects 2 products.
Products include Juniper Junos, Juniper Junos Os Evolved.
How do I fix CVE-2025-52986?
No fix has been published for CVE-2025-52986 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-2025-52986 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-52986 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Juniper Junos
- CVE-2023-36845 Juniper Junos OS EX Series and SRX Series PHP External Variable Modification
- CVE-2020-1631 Juniper Junos OS Path Traversal
- CVE-2025-21590 Juniper Junos OS Improper Isolation or Compartmentalization
- CVE-2023-36851 Juniper Junos OS SRX Series Missing Authentication for Critical Function
- CVE-2023-36844 Juniper Junos OS EX Series PHP External Variable Modification
Sources
Also known as GHSA-mfrf-wpm5-gv78.