Use After Free in Samba

CVE-2021-3738

In DCE/RPC it is possible to share the handles (cookies for resource state) between multiple connections via a mechanism called 'association groups'. These handles can reference connections to our sam.ldb database. However while the database was correctly shared, the user credentials state was only pointed at, and when one connection within that association group ended, the database would be left pointing at an invalid 'struct session_info'. The most likely outcome here is a crash, but it is possible that the use-after-free could instead allow different user state to be pointed at and this might allow more privileged access.

Vulnerability class: Use-After-Free

EPSS: 0.019 (77.8th percentile) — read the EPSS interpretation.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 8.8 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

Affected products

  • Samba
  • N/a Samba — versions Affects all versions since samba 4.0 | Fixedin samba v4.15.2, v4.14.10 and v4.13.14

Weakness classification (CWE)

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2021-3738?
CVE-2021-3738 is a high-severity vulnerability in Samba, classified under Use After Free. CVSS score: 8.8/10. Published 2022-03-02.
How severe is CVE-2021-3738?
High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 8.8 out of 10.