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CVE-2024-21609

Junos OS: MX Series with SPC3, and SRX Series: If specific IPsec parameters are negotiated iked will crash due to a memory leak

High7.1EPSS 0.29%
Published
Updated
Reserved
Assigned by
juniper

Description

A Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime vulnerability in the IKE daemon (iked) of Juniper Networks Junos OS on MX Series with SPC3, and SRX Series allows an administratively adjacent attacker which is able to successfully establish IPsec tunnels to cause a Denial of Service (DoS). If specific values for the IPsec parameters local-ip, remote-ip, remote ike-id, and traffic selectors are sent from the peer, a memory leak occurs during every IPsec SA rekey which is carried out with a specific message sequence. This will eventually result in an iked process crash and restart. The iked process memory consumption can be checked using the below command:   user@host> show system processes extensive | grep iked           PID USERNAME   PRI NICE   SIZE   RES   STATE   C TIME WCPU COMMAND           56903 root       31   0     4016M 2543M CPU0   0 2:10 10.50% iked This issue affects Juniper Networks Junos OS: * All versions earlier than 20.4R3-S9; * 21.2 versions earlier than 21.2R3-S7; * 21.3 versions earlier than 21.3R3-S5; * 21.4 versions earlier than 21.4R3-S4; * 22.1 versions earlier than 22.1R3-S3; * 22.2 versions earlier than 22.2R3-S2; * 22.3 versions earlier than 22.3R3; * 22.4 versions earlier than 22.4R3; * 23.2 versions earlier than 23.2R1-S2, 23.2R2.

Timeline

  1. ID reserved

    By juniper

  2. · 4 months later

    Published

  3. · 4 months later

    Record updated

Changes after publication (a new score, a public exploit, EPSS crossing 1, 10 or 50 %, leaving KEV) are kept since November 2026; earlier ones are not known.

Scores

CVSS scores of CVE-2024-21609, by who scored it
Scored byCVSSScoreVector
juniperCNA (assigner)4.0High7.1CVSS:4.0/AV:A/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:L
juniperCNA (assigner)3.1Medium6.5CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
NVDNVD · Analyzed4.0High7.1CVSS:4.0/AV:A/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:L/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X
EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
0.29% · top 78% of all CVEs (7 Nov 2026)
CISA SSVC
Exploitation: none · Automatable: no · Technical impact: partial
Loading the EPSS history…

The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: High 7.1.

Weakness

Affected products

  • Juniper Networks · Junos OS

    • affected < 20.4R3-S9
    • affected 21.2 – < 21.2R3-S7
    • affected 21.3 – < 21.3R3-S5
    • affected 21.4 – < 21.4R3-S4
    • affected 22.1 – < 22.1R3-S3
    • affected 22.2 – < 22.2R3-S2
    • affected 22.3 – < 22.3R3
    • affected 22.4 – < 22.4R3
    • affected 23.2 – < 23.2R1-S2, 23.2R2

What to do

Solution: The following software releases have been updated to resolve this specific issue: 20.4R3-S9, 21.2R3-S7, 21.3R3-S5, 21.4R3-S4, 22.1R3-S3, 22.2R3-S2, 22.3R3, 22.4R3, 23.2R1-S2, 23.2R2, 23.4R1, and all subsequent releases.

Workaround: While there is no workaround available, customers can monitor the memory utilization and restart iked periodically to clear the leak.

Exploitation: Juniper SIRT is not aware of any malicious exploitation of this vulnerability.

References (2)

Sources

The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.

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Record last updated .