CVE-2023-28971

Paragon Active Assurance: Enabling the timescaledb enables IP forwarding

Description

An Improper Restriction of Communication Channel to Intended Endpoints vulnerability in the timescaledb feature of Juniper Networks Paragon Active Assurance (PAA) (Formerly Netrounds) allows an attacker to bypass existing firewall rules and limitations used to restrict internal communcations. The Test Agents (TA) Appliance connects to the Control Center (CC) using OpenVPN. TA's are assigned an internal IP address in the 100.70.0.0/16 range. Firewall rules exists to limit communication from TA's to the CC to specific services only. OpenVPN is configured to not allow direct communication between Test Agents in the OpenVPN application itself, and routing is normally not enabled on the server running the CC application. The timescaledb feature is installed as an optional package on the Control Center. When the timescaledb container is started, this causes side-effects by bypassing the existing firewall rules and limitations for Test Agent communications. Note: This issue only affects customers hosting their own on-prem Control Center. The Paragon Active Assurance Software as a Service (SaaS) is not affected by this vulnerability since the timescaledb service is not enabled. This issue affects all on-prem versions of Juniper Networks Paragon Active Assurance prior to 4.1.2.

Remediation

Solution:

  • The following software releases have been updated to resolve this specific issue: 4.1.2, 4.2.0, and all subsequent releases.

Workaround:

  • If the timescaledb feature is not used - disable the service and disable IP forwarding. root@ncc:~# systemctl stop netrounds-timescaledb root@ncc:~# systemctl disable netrounds-timescaledb root@ncc:~# echo 0 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward In case timescaledb feature is used - drop forwarded packets by changing default forward policy to drop packets: Stop running services, to clear dynamic rules ncc services stop openvpn metrics timescaledb Set default DROP policy for forwarding iptables -P FORWARD DROP ip6tables -P FORWARD DROP Install iptables-persistent and save rules apt-get install iptables-persistent iptables-save > /etc/iptables/rules.v4 ip6tables-save > /etc/iptables/rules.v6 Restart services ncc services start openvpn metrics timescaledb

Category

7.2
CVSS
Severity: High
CVSS 3.1 •
EPSS 0.07%
Vendor Advisory juniper.net
Affected: Juniper Networks Paragon Active Assurance
Published at:
Updated at:

References

Link Tags
https://supportportal.juniper.net/JSA70595 mitigation vendor advisory

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the severity of CVE-2023-28971?
CVE-2023-28971 has been scored as a high severity vulnerability.
How to fix CVE-2023-28971?
To fix CVE-2023-28971: The following software releases have been updated to resolve this specific issue: 4.1.2, 4.2.0, and all subsequent releases.
Is CVE-2023-28971 being actively exploited in the wild?
As for now, there are no information to confirm that CVE-2023-28971 is being actively exploited. According to its EPSS score, there is a ~0% probability that this vulnerability will be exploited by malicious actors in the next 30 days.
What software or system is affected by CVE-2023-28971?
CVE-2023-28971 affects Juniper Networks Paragon Active Assurance.
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