Vulnerability in Juniper Junos

CVE-2021-31378

In broadband environments, including but not limited to Enhanced Subscriber Management, (CHAP, PPP, DHCP, etc.), on Juniper Networks Junos OS devices where RADIUS servers are configured for managing subscriber access and a subscriber is logged in and then requests to logout, the subscriber may be forced into a "Terminating" state by an attacker who is able to send spoofed messages appearing to originate from trusted RADIUS server(s) destined to the device in response to the subscriber's request. These spoofed messages cause the Junos OS General Authentication Service (authd) daemon to force the broadband subscriber into this "Terminating" state which the subscriber will not recover from thereby causing a Denial of Service (DoS) to the endpoint device. Once in the "Terminating" state, the endpoint subscriber will no longer be able to access the network. Restarting the authd daemon on the Junos OS device will temporarily clear the subscribers out of the "Terminating" state. As long as the attacker continues to send these spoofed packets and subscribers request to be logged out, the subscribers will be returned to the "Terminating" state thereby creating a persistent Denial of Service to the subscriber. An indicator of compromise may be seen by displaying the output of "show subscribers summary". The presence of subscribers in the "Terminating" state may indicate the issue is occurring. This issue affects: Juniper Networks Junos OS 17.3 versions prior to 17.3R3-S12; 17.4 versions prior to 17.4R3-S5; 18.1 versions prior to 18.1R3-S13; 18.2 versions prior to 18.2R3-S8; 18.3 versions prior to 18.3R3-S5; 18.4 versions prior to 18.4R2-S8, 18.4R3-S9; 19.1 versions prior to 19.1R3-S6; 19.2 versions prior to 19.2R1-S7, 19.2R3-S3; 19.3 versions prior to 19.3R2-S6, 19.3R3-S3; 19.4 versions prior to 19.4R1-S4, 19.4R1-S4, 19.4R3-S3; 20.1 versions prior to 20.1R3; 20.2 versions prior to 20.2R3-S1; 20.3 versions prior to 20.3R3; 20.4 versions prior to 20.4R3; 21.1 versions prior to 21.1R2. This issue does not affect: Juniper Networks Junos OS 12.3 version 12.3R1 and later versions; 15.1 version 15.1R1 and later versions.

EPSS: 0.010 (58.5th percentile) — read the EPSS interpretation.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 6.8 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H.

Affected products

Weakness classification (CWE)

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2021-31378?
CVE-2021-31378 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Juniper Junos, classified under Missing Release of Resource after Effective Lifetime. CVSS score: 6.8/10. Published 2021-10-19.
How severe is CVE-2021-31378?
Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 6.8 out of 10.