Security Resilience

CVE-2023-28976

Juniper Junos ≤ 19.1

Published
17 April 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 0.0062 49th 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-2023-28976 is a high-severity Improper Check for Unusual or Exceptional Conditions (CWE-754) vulnerability in Juniper Junos. Its CVSS base score is 7.5 (High).

Operationally, ranked at the 49th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

An Improper Check for Unusual or Exceptional Conditions vulnerability in the packet forwarding engine (pfe) of Juniper Networks Junos OS on MX Series allows an unauthenticated, network-based attacker to cause a Denial of Service (DoS). If specific traffic is received…

more

on MX Series and its rate exceeds the respective DDoS protection limit the ingress PFE will crash and restart. Continued receipt of this traffic will create a sustained DoS condition. This issue affects Juniper Networks Junos OS on MX Series: All versions prior to 19.1R3-S10; 19.2 versions prior to 19.2R3-S7; 19.3 versions prior to 19.3R3-S8; 19.4 versions prior to 19.4R3-S11; 20.2 versions prior to 20.2R3-S5; 20.4 versions prior to 20.4R3-S6; 21.1 versions prior to 21.1R3-S5; 21.2 versions prior to 21.2R3-S4; 21.3 versions prior to 21.3R3; 21.4 versions prior to 21.4R3; 22.1 versions prior to 22.1R2.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2023-28974Same product: Juniper Junos
CVE-2023-44199Same product: Juniper Junos
CVE-2023-36848Same product: Juniper Junos
CVE-2023-36850Same product: Juniper Junos
CVE-2023-36832Same product: Juniper Junos
CVE-2023-22413Same product: Juniper Junos
CVE-2023-22410Same product: Juniper Junos
CVE-2025-21594Same product: Juniper Junos
CVE-2025-30660Same product: Juniper Junos
CVE-2024-39539Same product: Juniper Junos

Affected Assets

juniper
junos
19.1, 19.2, 19.3, 19.4, 20.2 · ≤ 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-754

Requires detection and response to audit logging failures as an unusual or exceptional condition.

addresses: CWE-754

Implements detection of unusual or exceptional conditions followed by safe mode entry, reducing the window for exploitation of unchecked conditions.

addresses: CWE-754

Training ensures users perform required checks for unusual or exceptional conditions as part of contingency roles, limiting attacker leverage from skipped validations.

addresses: CWE-754

IR testing directly validates checks for unusual or exceptional conditions that could indicate security incidents.

addresses: CWE-754

Requires ongoing monitoring of organization-defined metrics and analysis, enabling checks for unusual or exceptional conditions.

addresses: CWE-754

Security testing routinely checks for unusual or exceptional inputs/conditions, identifying missing validation steps that flaw remediation then resolves.

addresses: CWE-754

Requires detection of unusual conditions followed by a controlled transition to the defined failure state.

addresses: CWE-754

MTTF determination forces explicit checks for conditions that precede predictable component failure.

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.

A.8.15 Logging partial match
finds

Logging can record unhandled exceptions but does not prevent the weakness itself.

finds

Monitoring may detect symptoms of unhandled conditions but does not eliminate the root weakness.

blocks

Secure development life cycle mandates exception handling and input validation that directly prevent missing checks for unusual conditions.

blocks

Application security requirements explicitly call for handling of exceptional conditions and error paths.

blocks

A.8.27 mandates security-by-design principles (fail securely, least privilege, distrust external input, security-oriented design reviews) that reach some but not most CWE-754 cases; many exceptional-condition checks live in low-level code paths outside architecture-level engineering.

prevents

Secure coding standards directly mandate proper checks for exceptional and unusual conditions.

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-754, a class-level weakness. Rules are authored against its narrower children: CWE-354.

References