New analysis has discovered that near 12,000 internet-exposed Juniper firewall units are susceptible to a not too long ago disclosed distant code execution flaw.
VulnCheck, which found a brand new exploit for CVE-2023-36845, mentioned it could possibly be exploited by an “unauthenticated and distant attacker to execute arbitrary code on Juniper firewalls with out making a file on the system.”
CVE-2023-36845 refers to a medium-severity flaw within the J-Net element of Junos OS that could possibly be weaponized by a menace actor to regulate sure, vital setting variables. It was patched by Juniper Networks final month alongside CVE-2023-36844, CVE-2023-36846, and CVE-2023-36847 in an out-of-cycle replace.

A subsequent proof-of-concept (PoC) exploit devised by watchTowr mixed CVE-2023-36846 and CVE-2023-36845 to add a PHP file containing malicious shellcode and obtain code execution.
The most recent exploit, then again, impacts older techniques and will be written utilizing a single cURL command. Particularly, it depends on simply CVE-2023-36845 to comprehend the identical goal.
This, in flip, is completed through the use of the usual enter stream (aka stdin) to set the PHPRC setting variable to “/dev/fd/0” by way of a specifically crafted HTTP request, successfully turning “/dev/fd/0” right into a makeshift file, and leak delicate info.
Arbitrary code execution is then achieved by leveraging PHP’s auto_prepend_file and allow_url_include choices along with the information:// protocol wrapper.
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“Firewalls are attention-grabbing targets to APT as they assist bridge into the protected community and might function helpful hosts for C2 infrastructure,” Jacob Baines mentioned. “Anybody who has an unpatched Juniper firewall ought to look at it for indicators of compromise.”
Juniper has since disclosed that it isn’t conscious of a profitable exploit towards its clients, however warned that it has detected exploitation makes an attempt within the wild, making it crucial that customers apply the mandatory fixes to mitigate potential threats.