Critical remote code execution flaw patched in Samba

Security researchers are urging users to install new Samba security updates in order to address a critical vulnerability that allows attackers to execute arbitrary code with root privileges.

Samba is an implementation of the SMB/CIFS networking protocol that enables Unix-like systems, including Linux, BSD, Solaris and Mac OS X to share files and printers with Windows computers. It also allows such systems to be integrated into Microsoft Active Directory environments and even act as domain controllers.

The new vulnerability is located in the smbd file server and was discovered by Richard van Eeden of Microsoft Vulnerability Research.

“It can be exploited by a malicious Samba client, by sending specially-crafted packets to the Samba server,” the Red Hat security team said in a blog post. “No authentication is required to exploit this flaw. It can result in remotely controlled execution of arbitrary code as root.”

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here