CVE-2023-3961
CriticalCVSS 9.1Exploitation Probability (EPSS)
High risk86th percentile - higher than 86% of all known CVEs
Summary
A path traversal vulnerability was identified in Samba when processing client pipe names connecting to Unix domain sockets within a private directory. Due to inadequate sanitization of incoming client pipe names, a client can send a pipe name containing Unix directory traversal characters (../), potentially causing SMB clients to connect as root to Unix domain sockets outside the private directory.
Risk Assessment
This could lead to unauthorized access to external services and consequential adverse events, including compromise or service crashes. The risk affects environments using Samba to expose RPC services.
Recommendation
Update Samba to a patched version and restrict access to RPC services and Unix sockets to trusted clients only.
Other vulnerabilities in Samba
See all- CVE-2026-58222High
A vulnerability in Samba Active Directory Domain Controller (AD DC) combines LDAP filter injection with improper authorization checks, allowing an authenticated low-privilege domain user to disclose confidential AD attributes such as msKds-RootKeyData, potentially leading to privilege escalation and full domain compromise.
- CVE-2017-15275High
Samba before 4.7.3 might allow remote attackers to obtain sensitive information by leveraging failure of the server to clear allocated heap memory.
- CVE-2016-2119High
In Samba library versions 4.x before 4.2.14, 4.3.x before 4.3.11, and 4.4.x before 4.4.5, a vulnerability allows man-in-the-middle attackers to bypass a client-signing protection mechanism. This enables spoofing of SMB2 and SMB3 servers.
- CVE-2016-2113High
Samba versions 4.x before 4.2.11, 4.3.x before 4.3.8, and 4.4.x before 4.4.2 do not verify X.509 certificates from TLS servers, allowing man-in-the-middle attackers to spoof LDAPS and HTTPS servers and obtain sensitive information via a crafted certificate.
- CVE-2015-8467High
The samldb_check_user_account_control_acl function in Samba 4.x before 4.1.22, 4.2.x before 4.2.7, and 4.3.x before 4.3.3 does not properly check for administrative privileges during the creation of machine accounts. This allows remote authenticated users to bypass intended access restrictions.
- CVE-2015-5252High
In Samba versions 3.x and 4.x before 4.1.22, 4.2.x before 4.2.7, and 4.3.x before 4.3.3, a vulnerability allows remote attackers to bypass intended file-access restrictions via a symlink pointing outside of a share when certain substring relationships in share names exist.
- CVE-2015-0240High
The Netlogon server implementation in smbd in Samba 3.5.x and 3.6.x before 3.6.25, 4.0.x before 4.0.25, 4.1.x before 4.1.17, and 4.2.x before 4.2.0rc5 performs a free operation on an uninitialized stack pointer, allowing remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via crafted Netlogon packets.
- CVE-2014-8143High
Samba versions 4.0.x before 4.0.24, 4.1.x before 4.1.16, and 4.2.x before 4.2rc4, when an Active Directory Domain Controller (AD DC) is configured, allow remote authenticated users to set the LDB userAccountControl UF_SERVER_TRUST_ACCOUNT bit, consequently gaining privileges.
- CVE-2026-58221Medium
A low-privilege authenticated Samba AD user can modify internal LDB special DNs via LDAP access, enabling a domain takeover.
- CVE-2026-4408Critical
A flaw in Samba allows remote command execution due to improper escaping of shell meta-characters in the 'check password script' feature when using the %u substitution. This affects non-standard configurations with samba-dcerpcd running as a system service.
Original NVD description (English source)
A path traversal vulnerability was identified in Samba when processing client pipe names connecting to Unix domain sockets within a private directory. Samba typically uses this mechanism to connect SMB clients to remote procedure call (RPC) services like SAMR LSA or SPOOLSS, which Samba initiates on demand. However, due to inadequate sanitization of incoming client pipe names, allowing a client to send a pipe name containing Unix directory traversal characters (../). This could result in SMB clients connecting as root to Unix domain sockets outside the private directory. If an attacker or client managed to send a pipe name resolving to an external service using an existing Unix domain socket, it could potentially lead to unauthorized access to the service and consequential adverse events, including compromise or service crashes.
Vulnerability data from NVD (NIST) · CISA KEV · EPSS