FedoraOperating system · Fedoraproject
CVE-2023-34967
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 · uneditedA Type Confusion vulnerability was found in Samba's mdssvc RPC service for Spotlight. When parsing Spotlight mdssvc RPC packets, one encoded data structure is a key-value style dictionary where the keys are character strings, and the values can be any of the supported types in the mdssvc protocol. Due to a lack of type checking in callers of the dalloc_value_for_key() function, which returns the object associated with a key, a caller may trigger a crash in talloc_get_size() when talloc detects that the passed-in pointer is not a valid talloc pointer. With an RPC worker process shared among multiple client connections, a malicious client or attacker can trigger a process crash in a shared RPC mdssvc worker process, affecting all other clients this worker serves.
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 · high confidenceA type confusion vulnerability exists in Samba's mdssvc RPC service for Spotlight where the dalloc_value_for_key() function returns objects without proper type validation. Attackers can pass incorrect value types to this function, causing talloc_get_size() to crash when it receives an invalid talloc pointer. Since RPC worker processes are shared among multiple client connections, a malicious client can crash the entire worker, denying service to all other clients using that process.
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
FedoraOperating system
= 37= 38
Enterprise LinuxOperating system
= 8.0= 9.0
Debian LinuxOperating system
= 11.0= 12.0< 4.16.11>= 4.17.0, < 4.17.10>= 4.18.0, < 4.18.5CVSS 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
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- Low
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify Samba installation and versionRun 'smbd --version' or 'samba --version' to obtain the installed Samba version number. On RPM-based systems, also run 'rpm -q samba' to confirm the package version.Affected if The installed version falls within: < 4.16.11, OR >= 4.17.0 and < 4.17.10, OR >= 4.18.0 and < 4.18.5
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Confirm mdssvc/Spotlight service is in useExamine the Samba configuration file (smb.conf, typically in /etc/samba/) for the 'spotlight' option set to 'yes' under any share definition, or look for 'mdssvc' references indicating Spotlight indexing is enabled.Affected if Spotlight support (mdssvc) is enabled in the Samba configuration for any share
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Verify mdssvc RPC service is runningCheck for running mdssvc processes using 'ps aux | grep mdssvc' or check if the service is listening on RPC ports (typically port 445 for SMB, with mdssvc as an RPC service). The 'rpcinfo' command can also enumerate registered RPC services.Affected if The mdssvc/Spotlight RPC service process is actively running
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Check OS distribution and version against affected listIdentify the host operating system (e.g., 'cat /etc/os-release' or 'hostnamectl') and verify if it is Fedora 37 or 38, RHEL 8.0 or 9.0, or Debian 11.0 or 12.0.Affected if The operating system is one of the listed affected distributions and Samba with Spotlight is installed
A user is affected if they run a vulnerable Samba version (less than 4.16.11, between 4.17.0-4.17.9, or between 4.18.0-4.18.5) WITH the mdssvc/Spotlight service enabled and running on their system.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
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 · scoped4.16.114.17.104.18.5
Upgrade Samba to a version containing the fix for CVE-2023-34967. If immediate patching is not possible, disable the mdssvc/Spotlight RPC service or isolate Spotlight-enabled shares behind network access controls to reduce attack surface.
Samba 4.18.5 or later (or 4.17.10 if staying on 4.17 branch, or 4.16.11 if staying on 4.16 branch)
- 1. Identify the currently installed Samba version using: rpm -qa | grep samba or dpkg -l | grep samba
- 2. For Fedora systems, run: dnf update samba
- 3. For RHEL/Enterprise Linux systems, run: dnf update samba or yum update samba
- 4. For Debian-based systems, run: apt-get update && apt-get install samba
- 5. After updating, verify the new version matches or exceeds 4.16.11, 4.17.10, or 4.18.5 using: smbd --version
- 6. Restart the Samba services to apply the update: systemctl restart smbd nmbd (or systemctl restart samba)
- 7. If the mdssvc (Spotlight) service is in use, ensure the RPC worker processes are restarted by reconnecting clients
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
Fix this in Fedora
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation6.0 h
- Testing5.0 h
- Review / QA3.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $4,752.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2023-34967 — 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 sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2023-34967 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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