CVE-2023-34966: Samba: infinite loop in mdssvc rpc service for spotlight

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2023-34966 is a high (CVSS 7.5) Loop with Unreachable Exit Condition vulnerability in debian debian_linux. EPSS estimates a 62.40% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 99.1% of scored vulnerabilities.

Timeline

1. 20-07-2023
   PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
2. 20-11-2025
   Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.

Description

An infinite loop vulnerability was found in Samba's mdssvc RPC service for Spotlight. When parsing Spotlight mdssvc RPC packets sent by the client, the core unmarshalling function sl_unpack_loop() did not validate a field in the network packet that contains the count of elements in an array-like structure. By passing 0 as the count value, the attacked function will run in an endless loop consuming 100% CPU. This flaw allows an attacker to issue a malformed RPC request, triggering an infinite loop, resulting in a denial of service condition.

• CWE-835Loop with Unreachable Exit ConditionThe product contains an iteration or loop with an exit condition that cannot be reached, i.e., an infinite loop.