A vulnerability due to the improper handling of direct memory access (DMA) buffers on EX4300 switches on Juniper Networks Junos OS allows an attacker sending specific unicast frames to trigger a Denial of Service (DoS) condition by exhausting DMA buffers, causing the FPC to crash and the device to restart. The DMA buffer leak is seen when receiving these specific, valid unicast frames on an interface without Layer 2 Protocol Tunneling (L2PT) or dot1x configured. Interfaces with either L2PT or dot1x configured are not vulnerable to this issue. When this issue occurs, DMA buffer usage keeps increasing and the following error log messages may be observed: Apr 14 14:29:34.360 /kernel: pid 64476 (pfex_junos), uid 0: exited on signal 11 (core dumped) Apr 14 14:29:33.790 init: pfe-manager (PID 64476) terminated by signal number 11. Core dumped! The DMA buffers on the FPC can be monitored by the executing vty command 'show heap': ID Base Total(b) Free(b) Used(b) % Name -- ---------- ----------- ----------- ----------- --- ----------- 0 4a46000 268435456 238230496 30204960 11 Kernel 1 18a46000 67108864 17618536 49490328 73 Bcm_sdk 2 23737000 117440512 18414552 99025960 84 DMA buf <<<<< keeps increasing 3 2a737000 16777216 16777216 0 0 DMA desc This issue affects Juniper Networks Junos OS on the EX4300: 17.3 versions prior to 17.3R3-S11; 17.4 versions prior to 17.4R2-S13, 17.4R3-S4; 18.1 versions prior to 18.1R3-S12; 18.2 versions prior to 18.2R2-S8, 18.2R3-S7; 18.3 versions prior to 18.3R3-S4; 18.4 versions prior to 18.4R1-S8, 18.4R2-S7, 18.4R3-S7; 19.1 versions prior to 19.1R1-S6, 19.1R2-S2, 19.1R3-S4; 19.2 versions prior to 19.2R1-S6, 19.2R3-S2; 19.3 versions prior to 19.3R3-S2; 19.4 versions prior to 19.4R2-S3, 19.4R3-S1; 20.1 versions prior to 20.1R2; 20.2 versions prior to 20.2R2-S1, 20.2R3; 20.3 versions prior to 20.3R1-S1, 20.3R2.
Published 2021-04-22 20:15:09
Updated 2022-08-05 17:16:44
View at NVD,   CVE.org
Vulnerability category: OverflowDenial of service

Products affected by CVE-2021-0242

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2021-0242

0.06%
Probability of exploitation activity in the next 30 days EPSS Score History
~ 23 %
Percentile, the proportion of vulnerabilities that are scored at or less

CVSS scores for CVE-2021-0242

Base Score Base Severity CVSS Vector Exploitability Score Impact Score Score Source First Seen
6.1
MEDIUM AV:A/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:C
6.5
6.9
NIST
6.5
MEDIUM CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
2.8
3.6
NIST
6.5
MEDIUM CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
2.8
3.6
Juniper Networks, Inc.

CWE ids for CVE-2021-0242

  • The product performs operations on a memory buffer, but it reads from or writes to a memory location outside the buffer's intended boundary. This may result in read or write operations on unexpected memory locations that could be linked to other variables, data structures, or internal program data.
    Assigned by: sirt@juniper.net (Secondary)
  • The product does not handle or incorrectly handles when a particular element is not the expected type, e.g. it expects a digit (0-9) but is provided with a letter (A-Z).
    Assigned by: sirt@juniper.net (Secondary)
  • The product allocates a reusable resource or group of resources on behalf of an actor without imposing any restrictions on the size or number of resources that can be allocated, in violation of the intended security policy for that actor.
    Assigned by: nvd@nist.gov (Primary)

References for CVE-2021-0242

  • https://kb.juniper.net/JSA11135
    2021-04 Security Bulletin: Junos OS: EX4300: FPC crash upon receipt of specific frames on an interface without L2PT or dot1x configured (CVE-2021-0242) - Juniper Networks
    Vendor Advisory
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