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Fencer Intel
high 7.5

CVE-2024-39562 json

Junos OS Evolved: A high rate of SSH connections causes a Denial of Service

published 2y ago modified 4mo ago also EUVD-2024-38088

cvss
7.5
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.4%
EPSS 0.4% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 37%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

A Missing Release of Resource after Effective Lifetime vulnerability the xinetd process, responsible for spawning SSH daemon (sshd) instances, of Juniper Networks Junos OS Evolved allows an unauthenticated network-based attacker to cause a Denial of Service (DoS) by blocking SSH access for legitimate users. Continued receipt of these connections will create a sustained Denial of Service (DoS) condition.

The issue is triggered when a high rate of concurrent SSH requests are received and terminated in a specific way, causing xinetd to crash, and leaving defunct sshd processes. Successful exploitation of this vulnerability blocks both SSH access as well as services which rely upon SSH, such as SFTP, and Netconf over SSH.

Once the system is in this state, legitimate users will be unable to SSH to the device until service is manually restored.  See WORKAROUND section below.

Administrators can monitor an increase in defunct sshd processes by utilizing the CLI command:

> show system processes | match sshd   root   25219 30901 0 Jul16 ?       00:00:00 [sshd] <defunct>

This issue affects Juniper Networks Junos OS Evolved: * All versions prior to 21.4R3-S7-EVO * 22.3-EVO versions prior to 22.3R2-S2-EVO, 22.3R3-S2-EVO; * 22.4-EVO versions prior to 22.4R3-EVO; * 23.2-EVO versions prior to 23.2R2-EVO.

This issue does not affect Juniper Networks Junos OS Evolved 22.1-EVO nor 22.2-EVO.

Patch / fix

  • Juniper Networks Junos OS Evolved 21.4R3-S7-EVO, 22.3R2-S2-EVO, 22.3R3-S2-EVO, 22.4R3-EVO, 23.2R2-EVO
  • juniper junos_os_evolved 21.4r3-s7, 22.3r2-s2, 22.3r3-s2, 22.4r3, 23.2r2

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CISA SSVC

Exploitation
none
Automatable
yes
Technical impact
partial
Assessed
2y ago

Exploit prediction

0.43% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 37% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-11).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 7.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
CNA 4.0 8.7 CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
CNA 4.0 8.7 CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/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

Affected products

  • Juniper Networks Junos OS Evolved
  • juniper junos_os_evolved

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-772 Missing Release of Resource after Effective Lifetime

References

Sources

Fencer Intel keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.