Vulnerability · Published Jan 15, 2026 · Assigned by juniper

CVE-2026-21909Junos OS and Junos OS Evolved: Receipt of specific IS-IS update packet causes memory leak leading to RPD crash

Medium 6.5

In plain English

A medium-severity memory leak in Junos OS from Juniper Networks. There are no confirmed reports of exploitation so far. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 0.2% (higher than 16% of all known vulnerabilities).

Severity (CVSS 3.1)6.5Medium
Exploit odds (30 days)0.2%top 83.7% of all CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo reportsCISA SSVC: none
Attack toolingNoneno public tooling known

Official description

A Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime vulnerability in the routing protocol daemon (rpd) Juniper Networks Junos OS and Junos OS Evolved allows an unauthenticated attacker controlling an adjacent IS-IS neighbor to send a specific update packet causing a memory leak. Continued receipt and processing of these packets will exhaust all available memory, crashing rpd and creating a Denial of Service (DoS) condition. Memory usage can be monitored through the use of the 'show task memory detail' command. For example: user@junos> show task memory detail | match ted-infra   TED-INFRA-COOKIE           25   1072     28   1184     229 user@junos> show task memory detail | match ted-infra   TED-INFRA-COOKIE           31   1360     34   1472     307 This issue affects: Junos OS:  * from 23.2 before 23.2R2,  * from 23.4 before 23.4R1-S2, 23.4R2,  * from 24.1 before 24.1R2;  Junos OS Evolved:  * from 23.2 before 23.2R2-EVO,  * from 23.4 before 23.4R1-S2-EVO, 23.4R2-EVO,  * from 24.1 before 24.1R2-EVO. This issue does not affect Junos OS versions before 23.2R1 or Junos OS Evolved versions before 23.2R1-EVO.

Affected products (as reported)

VendorProductVersions
Juniper Networks Junos OS 23.2 – before 23.2R223.4 – before 23.4R1-S2, 23.4R224.1 – before 24.1R2
Juniper Networks Junos OS Evolved 23.2 – before 23.2R2-EVO23.4 – before 23.4R1-S2-EVO, 23.4R2-EVO24.1 – before 24.1R2-EVO

Weakness: CWE-401 · Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

References