Through routine static code analysis of the Juniper Networks Junos OS software codebase, the Secure Development Life Cycle team identified a Use After Free vulnerability in PFE packet processing on the QFX10002-60C switching platform. Exploitation of this vulnerability may allow a logically adjacent attacker to trigger a Denial of Service (DoS). Continued exploitation of this vulnerability will sustain the Denial of Service (DoS) condition. This issue only affects QFX10002-60C devices. No other product or platform is vulnerable to this issue. This issue affects Juniper Networks Junos OS on QFX10002-60C: 19.1 version 19.1R3-S1 and later versions; 19.1 versions prior to 19.1R3-S3; 19.2 version 19.2R2 and later versions; 19.2 versions prior to 19.2R3-S1; 20.2 versions prior to 20.2R1-S2. This issue does not affect Juniper Networks Junos OS: versions prior to 19.1R3; 19.2 versions prior to 19.2R2; any version of 19.3; version 20.2R2 and later releases.
Referencing memory after it has been freed can cause a program to crash, use unexpected values, or execute code.
| Name | Vendor | Start Version | End Version |
|---|---|---|---|
| Junos | Juniper | 19.1-r3-s1 (including) | 19.1-r3-s1 (including) |
| Junos | Juniper | 19.1-r3-s2 (including) | 19.1-r3-s2 (including) |
| Junos | Juniper | 19.2-r2 (including) | 19.2-r2 (including) |
| Junos | Juniper | 19.2-r2-s1 (including) | 19.2-r2-s1 (including) |
| Junos | Juniper | 19.2-r3 (including) | 19.2-r3 (including) |
| Junos | Juniper | 20.2-r1 (including) | 20.2-r1 (including) |
| Junos | Juniper | 20.2-r1-s1 (including) | 20.2-r1-s1 (including) |
The use of previously-freed memory can have any number of adverse consequences, ranging from the corruption of valid data to the execution of arbitrary code, depending on the instantiation and timing of the flaw. The simplest way data corruption may occur involves the system’s reuse of the freed memory. Use-after-free errors have two common and sometimes overlapping causes:
In this scenario, the memory in question is allocated to another pointer validly at some point after it has been freed. The original pointer to the freed memory is used again and points to somewhere within the new allocation. As the data is changed, it corrupts the validly used memory; this induces undefined behavior in the process. If the newly allocated data happens to hold a class, in C++ for example, various function pointers may be scattered within the heap data. If one of these function pointers is overwritten with an address to valid shellcode, execution of arbitrary code can be achieved.