CVE-2014-6382 in Junos
Summary
by MITRE
The Juniper MX Series routers with Junos 13.3R3 through 13.3Rx before 13.3R6, 14.1 before 14.1R4, 14.1X50 before 14.1X50-D70, and 14.2 before 14.2R2, when configured as a broadband edge (BBE) router, allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (jpppd crash and restart) by sending a crafted PAP Authenticate-Request after the PPPoE Discovery and LCP phase are complete.
If you want to get best quality of vulnerability data, you may have to visit VulDB.
Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 03/05/2022
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2014-6382 affects Juniper MX Series routers operating specific versions of the Junos operating system when configured as broadband edge routers. This issue represents a significant denial of service weakness that can be exploited remotely by malicious actors to disrupt network services. The vulnerability specifically targets the jpppd process which is responsible for handling PPPoE sessions on these network devices. The affected versions include Junos 13.3R3 through 13.3Rx before 13.3R6, 14.1 before 14.1R4, 14.1X50 before 14.1X50-D70, and 14.2 before 14.2R2, indicating a broad range of router firmware versions that remain susceptible to this attack vector. The vulnerability occurs during the PPPoE session establishment process, specifically after the initial discovery and link control protocol phases have been successfully completed.
The technical flaw stems from inadequate input validation within the PPPoE authentication handling mechanism of the affected Junos versions. When a crafted PAP Authenticate-Request packet is transmitted to the router following the successful completion of PPPoE Discovery and LCP phases, the jpppd process fails to properly validate the incoming authentication request. This validation failure leads to an improper memory handling condition that ultimately causes the jpppd process to crash and restart automatically. The vulnerability is particularly concerning because it requires minimal network interaction to trigger, as attackers only need to send a specifically crafted packet rather than maintaining persistent connections or performing complex exploitation techniques. The process restart results in temporary disruption of PPPoE services for connected users, effectively creating a denial of service condition that can impact network availability and user connectivity.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple service disruption as it can affect network reliability and user experience across broadband edge networks. When the jpppd process crashes and restarts, all active PPPoE sessions are terminated, forcing users to reconnect to the network services. This disruption is particularly problematic in enterprise and service provider environments where continuous network availability is critical for business operations. The vulnerability affects the broader category of denial of service attacks and can be classified under CWE-129 Input Validation and CWE-248 Unchecked Return Value to NULL Pointer Dereference. Network administrators may experience increased system maintenance overhead as they need to monitor and potentially restart affected services, while the automatic process restart feature may mask the actual attack, making it difficult to correlate network disruptions with malicious activity.
The exploitation of this vulnerability aligns with tactics described in the MITRE ATT&CK framework under the T1499 technique for Network Denial of Service, specifically targeting network infrastructure components to disrupt service availability. Organizations running affected Juniper MX Series routers should prioritize patch management and firmware updates to address this vulnerability. The recommended mitigation involves upgrading to patched versions of Junos OS that properly validate PAP authentication requests and prevent the memory corruption that leads to process crashes. Network security teams should implement monitoring solutions to detect unusual PPPoE authentication patterns and consider network segmentation to limit the potential impact of such attacks. Additionally, implementing rate limiting on authentication requests and configuring proper access controls can help reduce the risk of exploitation while awaiting security patches. The vulnerability demonstrates the importance of proper input validation in network infrastructure software and highlights the need for continuous security assessment of routing equipment used in critical network environments.