CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2021-31350 — Juniper Junos security vulnerability

High CVSS 9

An Improper Privilege Management vulnerability in the gRPC framework, used by the Juniper Extension Toolkit (JET) API on Juniper Networks Junos OS and Junos OS Evolved, allows a network-based, low-privileged authenticated attacker to perform operations as root, leading to complete compromise of the targeted system. The issue is caused by the JET service daemon (jsd) process authenticating the user, then passing configuration operations directly to the management daemon (mgd) process, which runs as root. This issue affects Juniper Networks Junos OS: 18.4 versions prior to 18.4R1-S8, 18.4R2-S8, 18.4R3-S8; 19.1 versions prior to 19.1R2-S3, 19.1R3-S5; 19.2 versions prior to 19.2R1-S7, 19.2R3-S2; 19.3 versions prior to 19.3R2-S6, 19.3R3-S2; 19.4 versions prior to 19.4R1-S4, 19.4R2-S4, 19.4R3-S3; 20.1 versions prior to 20.1R2-S2, 20.1R3; 20.2 versions prior to 20.2R2-S3, 20.2R3; 20.3 versions prior to 20.3R2-S1, 20.3R3; 20.4 versions prior to 20.4R2. This issue does not affect Juniper Networks Junos OS versions prior to 18.4R1. Juniper Networks Junos OS Evolved: All versions prior to 20.4R2-EVO; 21.1-EVO versions prior to 21.1R2-EVO.

Severity
High
CVSS
9 (2.0)
Published
2021-10-19
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
operating-system
Weaknesses
CWE-269

Affected products

  • juniper / junos / 18.4
  • juniper / junos / 19.1

Showing 2 representative product identities from 93 source matches. Confirm exact affected versions with the linked vendor and NVD evidence.

Matched remediation archetype

Privilege escalation and unsafe privilege management

This catalog composition supplies bounded fallback guidance. Explicitly reviewed curated workflows load with the complete record below.

Check exposure

  • Map service accounts, operating-system identities, roles, capabilities, impersonation, set-user transitions, and administrative helper paths.
  • Determine whether untrusted users or lower-privilege processes can reach the affected transition or modify inputs it trusts.
  • Review file, socket, registry, device, job, container, and cloud-role permissions used before and after privilege changes.

Remediate safely

  • Apply the supported fix and redesign privileged operations as a minimal, authenticated, allowlisted interface.
  • Drop privileges before processing untrusted input, verify the drop succeeds, and remove unnecessary roles, capabilities, and write permissions.
  • Validate ownership and permissions at time of use and add explicit lower-to-higher privilege boundary tests.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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