Security Resilience

CVE-2023-22396

DoS in Juniper Junos 12.3 … 22.3

Published
13 January 2023
Modified
21 November 2024
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 7.5
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0056 46th percentile
Risk Priority 58 floored blend · peak EPSS

CVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.

Summary

CVE-2023-22396 is a high-severity Uncontrolled Resource Consumption (CWE-400) vulnerability in Juniper Junos. Its CVSS base score is 7.5 (High).

Operationally, ranked at the 46th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

An Uncontrolled Resource Consumption vulnerability in TCP processing on the Routing Engine (RE) of Juniper Networks Junos OS allows an unauthenticated network-based attacker to send crafted TCP packets destined to the device, resulting in an MBUF leak that ultimately leads…

more

to a Denial of Service (DoS). The system does not recover automatically and must be manually restarted to restore service. This issue occurs when crafted TCP packets are sent directly to a configured IPv4 or IPv6 interface on the device. Transit traffic will not trigger this issue. MBUF usage can be monitored through the use of the 'show system buffers' command. For example: user@junos> show system buffers | refresh 5 4054/566/4620 mbufs in use (current/cache/total) ... 4089/531/4620 mbufs in use (current/cache/total) ... 4151/589/4740 mbufs in use (current/cache/total) ... 4213/527/4740 mbufs in use (current/cache/total) This issue affects Juniper Networks Junos OS: 12.3 version 12.3R12-S19 and later versions; 15.1 version 15.1R7-S10 and later versions; 17.3 version 17.3R3-S12 and later versions; 18.4 version 18.4R3-S9 and later versions; 19.1 version 19.1R3-S7 and later versions; 19.2 version 19.2R3-S3 and later versions; 19.3 version 19.3R2-S7, 19.3R3-S3 and later versions prior to 19.3R3-S7; 19.4 version 19.4R2-S7, 19.4R3-S5 and later versions prior to 19.4R3-S10; 20.1 version 20.1R3-S1 and later versions; 20.2 version 20.2R3-S2 and later versions prior to 20.2R3-S6; 20.3 version 20.3R3-S1 and later versions prior to 20.3R3-S6; 20.4 version 20.4R2-S2, 20.4R3 and later versions prior to 20.4R3-S5; 21.1 version 21.1R2 and later versions prior to 21.1R3-S4; 21.2 version 21.2R1-S1, 21.2R2 and later versions prior to 21.2R3-S3; 21.3 versions prior to 21.3R3-S2; 21.4 versions prior to 21.4R3; 22.1 versions prior to 22.1R2-S1, 22.1R3; 22.2 versions prior to 22.2R1-S2, 22.2R2; 22.3 versions prior to 22.3R1-S1, 22.3R2.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2023-36841Same product: Juniper Junos
CVE-2020-1631Same product: Juniper Junos
CVE-2023-28962Same product: Juniper Junos
CVE-2025-52963Same product: Juniper Junos
CVE-2024-21594Same product: Juniper Junos
CVE-2025-52948Same product: Juniper Junos
CVE-2023-22399Same product: Juniper Junos
CVE-2025-30657Same product: Juniper Junos
CVE-2026-0203Same product: Juniper Junos
CVE-2025-52951Same product: Juniper Junos

Affected Assets

juniper
junos
12.3, 15.1, 17.3, 18.4, 19.1

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.

addresses: CWE-400

Limiting concurrent sessions directly prevents uncontrolled resource consumption by capping the number of active sessions per user or account.

addresses: CWE-400

Analysis identifies uncontrolled resource consumption indicative of denial-of-service or abuse attempts.

addresses: CWE-400

Contingency plan testing includes resource exhaustion scenarios to verify recovery, making it harder for attackers to sustain exploits that cause uncontrolled consumption.

addresses: CWE-400

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.

addresses: CWE-400

Alternate site allows resumption of operations if resource exhaustion at the primary site is exploited to cause unavailability.

addresses: CWE-400

Alternate telecommunications services enable resumption of essential functions when primary services become unavailable due to uncontrolled resource consumption.

addresses: CWE-400

The team can analyze and respond to resource exhaustion incidents, reducing the impact of attacks that exploit uncontrolled consumption weaknesses.

addresses: CWE-400

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.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

finds

Pre-agreed severity-based prioritization and resource allocation during incident triage reduce the likelihood that an attacker-induced resource exhaustion will overwhelm the organization before corrective action is taken.

finds

Early notification of anomalous resource consumption or system malfunctions enables throttling or isolation before availability is lost.

A.8.15 Logging partial match
finds

Specifying log storage limits and rotation procedures reduces the risk that unbounded log growth will exhaust disk or memory resources and cause denial of service.

finds

Resource-utilization monitoring and alerting on bottlenecks or overloads limits the impact of denial-of-service or resource-exhaustion attacks.

blocks

A.8.20 implements network-level protections (firewalls, segmentation, protocol hardening, monitoring, authentication of systems/devices) that can limit abuse of a resource-consuming weakness but do not stop the weakness from being exploitable; the flaw remains present in the product and can still be triggered from an authorized or internal context.

blocks

Monitoring network service usage and applying controls to restrict access when necessary limits an attacker’s ability to consume excessive resources through unrestricted or unauthenticated service calls.

Hardening callouts derived

DISA STIG baselines are authored against specific weaknesses. Where this CVE cites a broad weakness class, the mapping is not asserted at that abstraction (owner ruling, 2026-09-25: grade only at Base and below), so no rule is shown here rather than a rule shown against the wrong grain.

  • No fine-grained STIG row for CWE-400, a class-level weakness. Rules are authored against its narrower children: CWE-770.

References