CVE-2022-22173 in Junos OS
Summary
by MITRE • 01/19/2022
A Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime vulnerability in the Public Key Infrastructure daemon (pkid) of Juniper Networks Junos OS allows an unauthenticated networked attacker to cause Denial of Service (DoS). In a scenario where Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) is used in combination with Certificate Revocation List (CRL), if the CRL fails to download the memory allocated to store the CRL is not released. Repeated occurrences will eventually consume all available memory and lead to an inoperable state of the affected system causing a DoS. This issue affects Juniper Networks Junos OS: All versions prior to 18.3R3-S6; 18.4 versions prior to 18.4R2-S9, 18.4R3-S10; 19.1 versions prior to 19.1R2-S3, 19.1R3-S7; 19.2 versions prior to 19.2R1-S8, 19.2R3-S4; 19.3 versions prior to 19.3R3-S4; 19.4 versions prior to 19.4R2-S5, 19.4R3-S5; 20.1 versions prior to 20.1R3-S1; 20.2 versions prior to 20.2R3-S2; 20.3 versions prior to 20.3R3-S1; 20.4 versions prior to 20.4R3; 21.1 versions prior to 21.1R2, 21.1R3; 21.2 versions prior to 21.2R1-S1, 21.2R2. This issue can be observed by monitoring the memory utilization of the pkid process via: root@jtac-srx1500-r2003> show system processes extensive | match pki 20931 root 20 0 733M 14352K select 0:00 0.00% pkid which increases over time: root@jtac-srx1500-r2003> show system processes extensive | match pki 22587 root 20 0 901M 181M select 0:03 0.00% pkid
If you want to get best quality of vulnerability data, you may have to visit VulDB.
Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 01/20/2022
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2022-22173 represents a critical memory management flaw within the Public Key Infrastructure daemon (pkid) of Juniper Networks Junos OS operating systems. This issue manifests as a missing release of memory after effective lifetime, which fundamentally violates proper resource management practices and creates a predictable path to system compromise. The vulnerability specifically impacts environments where Public Key Infrastructure is utilized in conjunction with Certificate Revocation List functionality, creating a scenario where networked attackers can exploit the system's failure to properly manage memory allocation during CRL processing operations.
The technical flaw occurs when the pkid daemon attempts to download Certificate Revocation Lists and subsequently fails to properly release the memory allocated for storing these lists. This memory leak represents a classic example of a resource exhaustion vulnerability that aligns with CWE-401, which specifically addresses the failure to release memory resources after their effective lifetime has ended. The daemon's inability to properly manage memory allocation creates a cumulative effect where each failed CRL download operation consumes additional system memory without proper cleanup. This behavior directly maps to the ATT&CK technique T1499.004, which encompasses resource exhaustion attacks targeting system services.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple performance degradation to encompass complete system inoperability through denial of service conditions. As attackers repeatedly trigger the CRL download failure scenario, the memory consumption of the pkid process grows progressively, eventually exhausting available system resources and rendering the device incapable of functioning normally. The monitoring data provided demonstrates this progression clearly, showing the pkid process memory usage increasing from 733MB to 901MB over time, indicating the accumulation of unreleased memory allocations. This memory consumption pattern creates a deterministic path to system compromise that can be exploited by unauthenticated networked attackers without requiring any special privileges or authentication credentials.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability must address both immediate remediation and long-term system hardening approaches. The primary and most effective mitigation involves upgrading affected Junos OS versions to those that contain the necessary patches, specifically targeting versions that have been released after the identified vulnerable releases. Organizations should prioritize patch management processes to ensure all affected devices receive timely updates, as this vulnerability can be exploited remotely without authentication. Additionally, system administrators should implement proactive monitoring of the pkid process memory utilization to detect early signs of memory exhaustion and establish automated alerting mechanisms. Network segmentation and access control measures can provide additional defense-in-depth layers, though they cannot prevent exploitation of this specific memory management flaw. The vulnerability's impact across multiple Junos OS versions from 18.3 through 21.2 demonstrates the widespread nature of this issue, requiring comprehensive vulnerability management programs to address all affected systems within an organization's infrastructure.