A Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime vulnerability in the routing protocol daemon of Juniper Networks Junos OS and Junos OS Evolved allows an unauthenticated, network based attacker to cause a Denial of Service (DoS). In a BGP rib sharding scenario, when an attribute of an active BGP route is updated memory will leak. As rpd memory usage increases over time the rpd process will eventually run out of memory, crash, and restart. The memory utilization can be monitored with the following CLI commands: show task memory show system processes extensive | match rpd This issue affects: Juniper Networks Junos OS 20.3 versions prior to 20.3R3-S2; 20.4 versions prior to 20.4R3-S6; 21.1 versions prior to 21.1R3; 21.2 versions prior to 21.2R3; 21.3 versions prior to 21.3R2. Juniper Networks Junos OS Evolved 20.3-EVO version 20.3R1-EVO and later versions; 20.4-EVO versions prior to 20.4R3-S6-EVO; 21.2-EVO versions prior to 21.2R3-EVO; 21.3-EVO versions prior to 21.3R2-EVO.
| Software | From | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
| juniper / junos | 20.3-r1 | 20.3-r1.x |
| juniper / junos | 20.3-r1-s1 | 20.3-r1-s1.x |
| juniper / junos | 20.4-r1 | 20.4-r1.x |
| juniper / junos | 20.4-r1-s1 | 20.4-r1-s1.x |
| juniper / junos | 20.3-r2 | 20.3-r2.x |
| juniper / junos | 21.1-r1 | 21.1-r1.x |
| juniper / junos | 20.4-r2 | 20.4-r2.x |
| juniper / junos | 20.3-r2-s1 | 20.3-r2-s1.x |
| juniper / junos | 21.2-r1 | 21.2-r1.x |
| juniper / junos | 20.4-r2-s1 | 20.4-r2-s1.x |
| juniper / junos | 21.1-r1-s1 | 21.1-r1-s1.x |
| juniper / junos | 20.3-r3 | 20.3-r3.x |
| juniper / junos | 21.2-r1-s1 | 21.2-r1-s1.x |
| juniper / junos | 21.1-r2 | 21.1-r2.x |
| juniper / junos | 20.4-r3 | 20.4-r3.x |
| juniper / junos | 20.3-r3-s1 | 20.3-r3-s1.x |
| juniper / junos | 21.3-r1 | 21.3-r1.x |
| juniper / junos | 21.2-r2 | 21.2-r2.x |
| juniper / junos | 20.4-r3-s1 | 20.4-r3-s1.x |
| juniper / junos | 20.4-r2-s2 | 20.4-r2-s2.x |
| juniper / junos | 21.1-r2-s1 | 21.1-r2-s1.x |
| juniper / junos | 21.2 | 21.2.x |
| juniper / junos | 21.1 | 21.1.x |
| juniper / junos | 20.4 | 20.4.x |
| juniper / junos | 20.3 | 20.3.x |
| juniper / junos | 21.1-r2-s2 | 21.1-r2-s2.x |
| juniper / junos | 21.2-r1-s2 | 21.2-r1-s2.x |
| juniper / junos | 21.2-r2-s1 | 21.2-r2-s1.x |
| juniper / junos | 21.2-r2-s2 | 21.2-r2-s2.x |
| juniper / junos | 21.3-r1-s1 | 21.3-r1-s1.x |
| juniper / junos | 21.3-r1-s2 | 21.3-r1-s2.x |
| juniper / junos | 20.3-r1-s2 | 20.3-r1-s2.x |
| juniper / junos | 20.4-r3-s2 | 20.4-r3-s2.x |
| juniper / junos | 20.4-r3-s3 | 20.4-r3-s3.x |
| juniper / junos | 21.3 | 21.3.x |
| juniper / junos | 20.4-r3-s4 | 20.4-r3-s4.x |
| juniper / junos | 20.4-r3-s5 | 20.4-r3-s5.x |
| juniper / junos_os_evolved | 20.3-r1 | 20.3-r1.x |
| juniper / junos_os_evolved | 20.3-r1-s1 | 20.3-r1-s1.x |
| juniper / junos_os_evolved | 20.4-r1 | 20.4-r1.x |
| juniper / junos_os_evolved | 20.3-r2 | 20.3-r2.x |
| juniper / junos_os_evolved | 21.2-r1 | 21.2-r1.x |
| juniper / junos_os_evolved | 21.2-r1-s1 | 21.2-r1-s1.x |
| juniper / junos_os_evolved | 21.2-r2 | 21.2-r2.x |
| juniper / junos_os_evolved | 20.4-r1-s1 | 20.4-r1-s1.x |
| juniper / junos_os_evolved | 20.4-r1-s2 | 20.4-r1-s2.x |
| juniper / junos_os_evolved | 20.4-r2 | 20.4-r2.x |
| juniper / junos_os_evolved | 20.4-r2-s1 | 20.4-r2-s1.x |
| juniper / junos_os_evolved | 20.4-r2-s2 | 20.4-r2-s2.x |
| juniper / junos_os_evolved | 20.4-r2-s3 | 20.4-r2-s3.x |
| juniper / junos_os_evolved | 20.4-r3 | 20.4-r3.x |
| juniper / junos_os_evolved | 20.4-r3-s1 | 20.4-r3-s1.x |
| juniper / junos_os_evolved | 20.3-r1-s2 | 20.3-r1-s2.x |
| juniper / junos_os_evolved | 20.3-r1-s3 | 20.3-r1-s3.x |
| juniper / junos_os_evolved | 21.3-r1 | 21.3-r1.x |
| juniper / junos_os_evolved | 20.4 | 20.4.x |
| juniper / junos_os_evolved | 21.2 | 21.2.x |
| juniper / junos_os_evolved | 21.2-r1-s2 | 21.2-r1-s2.x |
| juniper / junos_os_evolved | 21.2-r2-s1 | 21.2-r2-s1.x |
| juniper / junos_os_evolved | 21.3-r1-s1 | 21.3-r1-s1.x |
| juniper / junos_os_evolved | 20.4-r3-s2 | 20.4-r3-s2.x |
| juniper / junos_os_evolved | 21.2-r2-s2 | 21.2-r2-s2.x |
| juniper / junos_os_evolved | 21.3 | 21.3.x |
| juniper / junos_os_evolved | 20.4-r3-s4 | 20.4-r3-s4.x |
| juniper / junos_os_evolved | 20.4-r3-s3 | 20.4-r3-s3.x |
| juniper / junos_os_evolved | 20.4-r3-s5 | 20.4-r3-s5.x |
A security vulnerability is a weakness in software, hardware, or configuration that can be exploited to compromise confidentiality, integrity, or availability. Many vulnerabilities are tracked as CVEs (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures), which provide a standardized identifier so teams can coordinate patching, mitigation, and risk assessment across tools and vendors.
CVSS (Common Vulnerability Scoring System) estimates technical severity, but it doesn't automatically equal business risk. Prioritize using context like internet exposure, affected asset criticality, known exploitation (proof-of-concept or in-the-wild), and whether compensating controls exist. A "Medium" CVSS on an exposed, production system can be more urgent than a "Critical" on an isolated, non-production host.
A vulnerability is the underlying weakness. An exploit is the method or code used to take advantage of it. A zero-day is a vulnerability that is unknown to the vendor or has no publicly available fix when attackers begin using it. In practice, risk increases sharply when exploitation becomes reliable or widespread.
Recurring findings usually come from incomplete Asset Discovery, inconsistent patch management, inherited images, and configuration drift. In modern environments, you also need to watch the software supply chain: dependencies, containers, build pipelines, and third-party services can reintroduce the same weakness even after you patch a single host. Unknown or unmanaged assets (often called Shadow IT) are a common reason the same issues resurface.
Use a simple, repeatable triage model: focus first on externally exposed assets, high-value systems (identity, VPN, email, production), vulnerabilities with known exploits, and issues that enable remote code execution or privilege escalation. Then enforce patch SLAs and track progress using consistent metrics so remediation is steady, not reactive.
SynScan combines attack surface monitoring and continuous security auditing to keep your inventory current, flag high-impact vulnerabilities early, and help you turn raw findings into a practical remediation plan.