CVE-2023-36839: Junos OS and Junos OS Evolved: An l2cpd crash will occur when specific LLDP packets are received

Severity: medium (CVSS 6.5 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.3% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2023-10-12 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-1284

Description

An Improper Validation of Specified Quantity in Input vulnerability in the Layer-2 control protocols daemon (l2cpd) of Juniper Networks Junos OS and Junos OS Evolved allows an unauthenticated adjacent attacker who sends specific LLDP packets to cause a Denial of Service(DoS). This issue occurs when specific LLDP packets are received and telemetry polling is being done on the device. The impact of the l2cpd crash is reinitialization of STP protocols (RSTP, MSTP or VSTP), and MVRP and ERP. Also, if any services depend on LLDP state (like PoE or VoIP device recognition), then these will also be affected. This issue affects: Juniper Networks Junos OS * All versions prior to 20.4R3-S8; * 21.1 version 21.1R1 and later versions; * 21.2 versions prior to 21.2R3-S5; * 21.3 versions prior to 21.3R3-S4; * 21.4 versions prior to 21.4R3-S3; * 22.1 versions prior to 22.1R3-S2; * 22.2 versions prior to 22.2R3; * 22.3 versions prior to 22.3R2-S2; * 22.4 versions prior to 22.4R2; Juniper Networks Junos OS Evolved * All versions prior to 20.4R3-S8-EVO; * 21.1 version 21.1R1-EVO and later versions; * 21.2 versions prior to 21.2R3-S5-EVO; * 21.3 versions prior to 21.3R3-S4-EVO; * 21.4 versions prior to 21.4R3-S3-EVO; * 22.1 versions prior to 22.1R3-S2-EVO; * 22.2 versions prior to 22.2R3-EVO; * 22.3 versions prior to 22.3R2-S2-EVO; * 22.4 versions prior to 22.4R1-S1-EVO;

Affected products

Juniper Junos OS: before 20.4; 20.4, 20.4-r1, 20.4-r1-s1, 20.4-r2, 20.4-r2-s1, 20.4-r2-s2 (+74) — fixed in 20.4
Juniper Networks Junos OS Evolved: before 20.4; 20.4, 20.4-r1, 20.4-r1-s1, 20.4-r1-s2, 20.4-r2, 20.4-r2-s1 (+67) — fixed in 20.4

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Juniper Junos OS 20.4; Juniper Networks Junos OS Evolved 20.4. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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