Cyber Resilience

CVE-2023-44184

Memory Safety in Juniper Junos ≤ 20.4

Memory Safety
Published
13 October 2023
Modified
02 May 2025
Patch / advisory
View advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 6.5
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0050 40th percentile
Risk Priority 50 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2023-44184 is a medium-severity Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer (CWE-119) vulnerability in Juniper Junos. Its CVSS base score is 6.5 (Medium).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Process Injection (T1055); ranked at the 40th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

An Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer vulnerability in the management daemon (mgd) process of Juniper Networks Junos OS and Junos OS Evolved allows a network-based authenticated low-privileged attacker, by executing a specific command via…

more

NETCONF, to cause a CPU Denial of Service to the device's control plane. This issue affects: Juniper Networks Junos OS * All versions prior to 20.4R3-S7; * 21.2 versions prior to 21.2R3-S5; * 21.3 versions prior to 21.3R3-S5; * 21.4 versions prior to 21.4R3-S4; * 22.1 versions prior to 22.1R3-S2; * 22.2 versions prior to 22.2R3; * 22.3 versions prior to 22.3R2-S1, 22.3R3; * 22.4 versions prior to 22.4R1-S2, 22.4R2. Juniper Networks Junos OS Evolved * All versions prior to 21.4R3-S4-EVO; * 22.1 versions prior to 22.1R3-S2-EVO; * 22.2 versions prior to 22.2R3-EVO; * 22.3 versions prior to 22.3R3-EVO; * 22.4 versions prior to 22.4R2-EVO. An indicator of compromise can be seen by first determining if the NETCONF client is logged in and fails to log out after a reasonable period of time and secondly reviewing the WCPU percentage for the mgd process by running the following command: mgd process example: user@device-re#> show system processes extensive | match "mgd|PID" | except last PID USERNAME PRI NICE SIZE RES STATE C TIME WCPU COMMAND 92476 root 100 0 500M 89024K CPU3 3 57.5H 89.60% mgd <<<<<<<<<<< review the high cpu percentage. Example to check for NETCONF activity: While there is no specific command that shows a specific session in use for NETCONF, you can review logs for UI_LOG_EVENT with "client-mode 'netconf'" For example: mgd[38121]: UI_LOGIN_EVENT: User 'root' login, class 'super-user' [38121], ssh-connection '10.1.1.1 201 55480 10.1.1.2 22', client-mode 'netconf'

CWE(s)
CWE-119

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1055 Process Injection Stealth
Adversaries may inject code into processes in order to evade process-based defenses as well as possibly elevate privileges.
attack.mitre.org →
T1068 Exploitation for Privilege Escalation Privilege Escalation
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to elevate privileges.
attack.mitre.org →
T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application Initial Access
Adversaries may attempt to exploit a weakness in an Internet-facing host or system to initially access a network.
attack.mitre.org →
T1203 Exploitation for Client Execution Execution
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in client applications to execute code.
attack.mitre.org →
T1210 Exploitation of Remote Services Lateral Movement
Adversaries may exploit remote services to gain unauthorized access to internal systems once inside of a network.
attack.mitre.org →
T1212 Exploitation for Credential Access Credential Access
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to collect credentials.
attack.mitre.org →
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2025-30653Same product: Juniper Junos
CVE-2025-30651Same product: Juniper Junos
CVE-2025-52955Same product: Juniper Junos
CVE-2026-21908Same product: Juniper Junos
CVE-2025-59959Same product: Juniper Junos
CVE-2026-21921Same product: Juniper Junos
CVE-2023-44182Same product: Juniper Junos
CVE-2024-39528Same product: Juniper Junos
CVE-2024-30395Same product: Juniper Junos
CVE-2024-39543Same product: Juniper Junos

Affected Assets

juniper
junos
20.4, 21.2, 21.3, 21.4, 22.1 · ≤ 20.4
juniper
junos os evolved
21.4, 22.1, 22.2, 22.3, 22.4 · ≤ 21.4

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

—

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

—

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)

—

Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V17.3.2

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.

SA-11 Developer Testing and Evaluation
addresses: CWE-119

Ongoing control assessments and code testing (static/dynamic analysis, fuzzing) surface memory buffer restriction failures, which are then remediated before release.

SC-27 Platform-independent Applications
addresses: CWE-119

Managed runtimes used by platform-independent applications (e.g., JVM, CLR) enforce memory safety, preventing most buffer overflows that require direct memory manipulation.

SI-16 Memory Protection
addresses: CWE-119

Memory protections (e.g., W^X, ASLR) make exploitation of buffer-boundary violations far harder to turn into code execution.

SI-4 System Monitoring
addresses: CWE-119

Detects exploitation attempts that produce memory corruption, crashes, or anomalous behavior.

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

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

PR.PS-06 mostly match
prevents

Secure SDLC practices (bounds checking, safe APIs, reviews) directly prevent this class of flaw.

ID.RA-01 partial match
prevents

Vulnerability scanning and code analysis directly surface buffer-boundary flaws.

ID.RA-08 partial match
prevents

Receiving and triaging vulnerability disclosures commonly includes buffer-related reports.

PR.AT-02 partial match
prevents

Developer training on secure coding reduces introduction of memory-buffer errors.

PR.PS-02 partial match
prevents

Patching replaces vulnerable code containing buffer-boundary defects.

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.8.29 Security testing in development and acceptance mostly match
finds

Security testing in development catches out-of-bounds accesses before release, covering most instances of the weakness.

A.8.25 Secure development life cycle partial match
prevents

Secure development lifecycle mandates memory-safety practices that directly prevent buffer-boundary violations.

A.8.26 Application security requirements partial match
prevents

Application security requirements can specify memory-safety rules, but do not prescribe implementation details.

A.8.27 Secure system architecture and engineering principles partial match
prevents

Secure architecture and engineering principles include memory-safe design patterns that mitigate buffer overflows.

A.8.28 Secure coding partial match
prevents

Secure coding standards explicitly forbid unsafe buffer operations, directly eliminating CWE-119.

References