SambaApplication

CVE-1999-0182

HIGH · 10.0 CVSS v2.0 Published 1997-09-30
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 1.9.17 or later.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
Samba has a buffer overflow which allows a remote attacker to obtain root access by specifying a long password.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · moderate confidence

Samba versions prior to patches contained a buffer overflow vulnerability in password handling logic. By sending a specially long password field, a remote unauthenticated attacker could overflow a stack buffer and execute arbitrary code with root privileges on the affected system.

MitigationUpgrade to a patched version of Samba or migrate to a currently supported Samba release. If immediate patching is not feasible, restrict network access to SMB services (ports 445/139) via firewall to prevent external exploitation.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
SambaApplication
Affected:<= 1.9.17

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Authentication
None
Confidentiality
Complete
Integrity
Complete
Availability
Complete

AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Check if Samba is installed
    Run command: rpm -qa | grep -i samba (RHEL/CentOS), dpkg -l | grep -i samba (Debian), or which smbd nmbd
    Affected if No Samba packages or binaries found means not affected
  2. Determine installed Samba version
    Run command: smbd --version or rpm -q samba or dpkg -s samba
    Affected if Version is 1.9.17 or lower, or version cannot be determined (indicating very old install)
  3. Check if SMB services are running
    Run command: ps aux | grep -E 'smbd|nmbd' or systemctl status smb nmb
    Affected if smbd or nmbd processes are running - the vulnerable password handling code is active
  4. Verify SMB ports are listening
    Run command: netstat -tlnp | grep -E ':139|:445' or ss -tlnp | grep -E ':139|:445'
    Affected if Ports 139 or 445 are open and accepting connections - the attack surface is exposed

System is affected if Samba version 1.9.17 or lower is installed AND SMB services (smbd/nmbd) are running and accessible on network ports.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to a release after 1.9.17
Interim mitigation

Upgrade to a patched version of Samba or migrate to a currently supported Samba release. If immediate patching is not feasible, restrict network access to SMB services (ports 445/139) via firewall to prevent external exploitation.

Recommended fix Moderate confidence

Samba 4.x (modern stable release, e.g., 4.18.x or latest 4.x)

  1. Identify all systems running Samba version 1.9.17 or earlier
  2. Stop the Samba service on affected systems
  3. Backup all Samba configuration files (smb.conf) and user databases
  4. Uninstall the old Samba version
  5. Install a current stable Samba version (Samba 4.x series)
  6. Restore the backed-up configuration files
  7. Verify the configuration syntax with 'testparm'
  8. Start the Samba service
Caveat Very old Samba configurations or scripts may need updating for Samba 4.x syntax; legacy protocol downgrades may be required for very old clients

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Samba Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
10.0 hours of engineering $1,750
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,800.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-1999-0182 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.

References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-1999-0182 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data