Product Affected

SRX Series services gateways upgraded to Junos OS versions 12.1X44 or 12.1X45.
High
8.5 (AV:N/AC:M/Au:S/C:C/I:C/A:C)

Problem

 During a software upgrade of an SRX Series services gateway to Junos OS 12.1X44 or 12.1X45 using the 'no-validate' option, a configuration validation error during the config commit phase of the boot-up sequence may leave the device with a partial configuration, allowing for unauthenticated access. An example of such an error during boot is shown below: 

Loading configuration ...
[edit security forwarding-process application-services]
'maximize-idp-sessions'
inline-tap must be specified
mgd: error: commit failed: (statements constraint check failed)
Warning: Commit failed, activating partial configuration.
Warning: Edit the router configuration to fix these errors.
Customers can also review the install logs for these errors to determine if a previous upgrade left the SRX vulnerable to this issue.

This issue can only be triggered during an upgrade, and only if the 'no-validate' option is specified on the command line prior to reloading the SRX. Additionally, the vulnerability only affects upgrades to Junos OS 12.1X44 or 12.1X45, excluding the releases listed in the Solution section below.

This issue was found during internal product security testing.

Juniper SIRT is not aware of any malicious exploitation of this vulnerability.

No other Juniper Networks products or platforms are affected by this issue.

This issue has been assigned CVE-2013-6012.

Solution

The following software releases have been updated to resolve this specific issue:

  • Junos OS 12.1X44-D20, 12.1X45-D15, and all subsequent releases (i.e. all releases built after 12.1X45-D15).

This issue is being tracked as PR 888721 and is visible on the Customer Support website.

KB16765 [juniper.net] - "In which releases are vulnerabilities fixed?" describes which release vulnerabilities are fixed as per our End of Engineering and End of Life support policies. How to obtain fixed software:

Security vulnerabilities in Junos are fixed in the next available Maintenance Release of each supported Junos version. In some cases, a Maintenance Release is not planned to be available in an appropriate time-frame. For these cases, Service Releases are made available in order to be more timely. Security Advisory and Security Notices will indicate which Maintenance and Service Releases contain fixes for the issues described. Upon request to JTAC, customers will be provided download instructions for a Service Release. Although Juniper does not provide formal Release Note documentation for a Service Release, a list of "PRs fixed" can be provided on request.

Workaround

Resolve any configuration check failures, and then reboot the SRX services gateway.

Avoid using the 'no-validate' option of the 'request system software' command.

In addition to the recommendations listed above, it is good security practice to limit the exploitable attack surface of critical infrastructure networking equipment. Use access lists or firewall filters to limit access to the device only from trusted, administrative networks or hosts.

Severity Assessment

Information for how Juniper Networks uses CVSS can be found at KB 16446 [juniper.net] "Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) and Juniper's Security Advisories."

Related Information

Acknowledgements