CVE-2021-0230
Published: 22 April 2021
Summary
CVE-2021-0230 is a high-severity Uncontrolled Resource Consumption (CWE-400) vulnerability in Juniper Junos. Its CVSS base score is 7.5 (High).
Operationally, ranked in the top 39.6% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2021-2849
Vulnerability details
On Juniper Networks SRX Series devices with link aggregation (lag) configured, executing any operation that fetches Aggregated Ethernet (AE) interface statistics, including but not limited to SNMP GET requests, causes a slow kernel memory leak. If all the available memory…
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is consumed, the traffic will be impacted and a reboot might be required. The following log can be seen if this issue happens. /kernel: rt_pfe_veto: Memory over consumed. Op 1 err 12, rtsm_id 0:-1, msg type 72 /kernel: rt_pfe_veto: free kmem_map memory = (20770816) curproc = kmd An administrator can use the following CLI command to monitor the status of memory consumption (ifstat bucket): user@device > show system virtual-memory no-forwarding | match ifstat Type InUse MemUse HighUse Limit Requests Limit Limit Size(s) ifstat 2588977 162708K - 19633958 <<<< user@device > show system virtual-memory no-forwarding | match ifstat Type InUse MemUse HighUse Limit Requests Limit Limit Size(s) ifstat 3021629 189749K - 22914415 <<<< This issue affects Juniper Networks Junos OS on SRX Series: 17.1 versions 17.1R3 and above prior to 17.3R3-S11; 17.4 versions prior to 17.4R3-S5; 18.2 versions prior to 18.2R3-S7, 18.2R3-S8; 18.3 versions prior to 18.3R3-S4; 18.4 versions prior to 18.4R2-S7, 18.4R3-S6; 19.1 versions prior to 19.1R3-S4; 19.2 versions prior to 19.2R1-S6; 19.3 versions prior to 19.3R3-S1; 19.4 versions prior to 19.4R3-S1; 20.1 versions prior to 20.1R2, 20.1R3; 20.2 versions prior to 20.2R2-S2, 20.2R3; 20.3 versions prior to 20.3R1-S2, 20.3R2. This issue does not affect Juniper Networks Junos OS prior to 17.1R3.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
No named actor attribution yet. ATT&CK technique mapping in progress for this CVE.
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Likely Mitigating Controls AI
Per-CVE control mapping for this CVE has not run yet; the list below is derived from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry.
Limiting concurrent sessions directly prevents uncontrolled resource consumption by capping the number of active sessions per user or account.
Analysis identifies uncontrolled resource consumption indicative of denial-of-service or abuse attempts.
Contingency plan testing includes resource exhaustion scenarios to verify recovery, making it harder for attackers to sustain exploits that cause uncontrolled consumption.
Updated contingency plans include current procedures to detect, contain, and recover from resource exhaustion, limiting an attacker's ability to sustain impact from uncontrolled consumption.
Alternate site allows resumption of operations if resource exhaustion at the primary site is exploited to cause unavailability.
Alternate telecommunications services enable resumption of essential functions when primary services become unavailable due to uncontrolled resource consumption.
The team can analyze and respond to resource exhaustion incidents, reducing the impact of attacks that exploit uncontrolled consumption weaknesses.
Timely maintenance support and spare parts enable rapid recovery from failures induced by uncontrolled resource consumption, shortening the impact window of denial-of-service attacks.