Junos OS (SRX firewalls)
CVE-2024-21613: A link flap causes patroot memory leak which leads to rpd crash
A Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime vulnerability in Routing Protocol Daemon (RPD) of Juniper Networks Junos OS and Junos OS Evolved allows an unauthenticated, adjacent attacker to cause an rpd crash, leading to Denial of Service (DoS).
Published
Automatic summary from the vendor's CVE record. We haven't written a full analysis of this vulnerability yet.
Affected and fixed versions
| Product / branch | Fixed in |
|---|---|
| Junos OS 0 | 21.2R3-S3 or later |
| Junos OS 21.3 | 21.3R3-S5 or later |
| Junos OS 21.4 | 21.4R3-S3 or later |
| Junos OS 22.1 | 22.1R3 or later |
| Junos OS 22.2 | 22.2R3 or later |
| Junos OS Evolved 0 | 21.3R3-S5-EVO or later |
| Junos OS Evolved 21.4 | 21.4R3-EVO or later |
| Junos OS Evolved 22.1 | 22.1R3-EVO or later |
| Junos OS Evolved 22.2 | 22.2R3-EVO or later |
Always confirm against the vendor advisory, which lists every fixed hotfix.
What it is
A Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime vulnerability in Routing Protocol Daemon (RPD) of Juniper Networks Junos OS and Junos OS Evolved allows an unauthenticated, adjacent attacker to cause an rpd crash, leading to Denial of Service (DoS).
On all Junos OS and Junos OS Evolved platforms, when traffic engineering is enabled for OSPF or ISIS, and a link flaps, a patroot memory leak is observed. This memory leak, over time, will lead to an rpd crash and restart.
The memory usage can be monitored using the below command.
user@host> show task memory detail | match patroot This issue affects:
Juniper Networks Junos OS
- All versions earlier than 21.2R3-S3;
- 21.3 versions earlier than 21.3R3-S5;
- 21.4 versions earlier than 21.4R3-S3;
- 22.1 versions earlier than 22.1R3;
- 22.2 versions earlier than 22.2R3.
Juniper Networks Junos OS Evolved
- All versions earlier than 21.3R3-S5-EVO;
- 21.4 versions earlier than 21.4R3-EVO;
- 22.1 versions earlier than 22.1R3-EVO;
- 22.2 versions earlier than 22.2R3-EVO.
Am I affected?
For this issue to occur, OSPF or ISIS with traffic engineering needs to be enabled.
[ protocols ospf traffic-engineering ] [ protocols isis traffic-engineering ]
Workarounds
There are no known workarounds for this issue.
Exploitation
Juniper SIRT is not aware of any malicious exploitation of this vulnerability.
Sources
KEV status, EPSS score and vendor data refreshed automatically, last on 13 Oct 2026.