CVE-2023-3961 | Samba: smbd allows client access to unix domain sockets on the file system as root

Exp

A path traversal vulnerability was identified in Samba when processing client pipe names connecting to Unix domain sockets within a private directory. Samba typically uses this mechanism to connect SMB clients to remote procedure call (RPC) services like SAMR LSA or SPOOLSS, which Samba initiates on demand. However, due to inadequate sanitization of incoming client pipe names, allowing a client to send a pipe name containing Unix directory traversal characters (../). This could result in SMB clients connecting as root to Unix domain sockets outside the private directory. If an attacker or client managed to send a pipe name resolving to an external service using an existing Unix domain socket, it could potentially lead to unauthorized access to the service and consequential adverse events, including compromise or service crashes.

Published: 2023-11-03 Last update: 2026-06-17 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2023-3961 is rated High Exploit Risk (80.5/100): CVSS Critical severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 2.41%). 1 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). Public exploits are available—assess exposure, apply mitigations, and prioritize patching.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Public exploit references (Exploit-DB) for CVE-2023-3961

EDB-ID Source Kind Published Link
— nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2023-3961

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-06-15 1.94% 2.41% +0.47%
2 2025-11-28 1.67% 1.94% +0.27%
3 2025-11-23 — 1.67% —

Full EPSS history (24 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-3961

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
9.1 3.1 CRITICAL
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 3.9 5.2 [email protected]
9.8 3.1 CRITICAL
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 3.9 5.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2023-3961

OS Trackers for CVE-2023-3961

vendor priority summary link
alpine — CVE-2023-3961: 1 source package rows (samba); 155 state rows across 7 repos (3.17-main, 3.18-main, 3.19-main, 3.20-main, 3.21-main, 3.22-main, edge-main); fixed 6, open 149. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2023-3961
debian unimportant CVE-2023-3961 unimportant priority: Debian including 1 source packages (samba), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2023-3961
gentoo high CVE-2023-3961: 1 GLSA(s) (202402-28), 1 atom(s) (net-fs/samba); latest impact high. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2023-3961
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-3961
suse medium CVE-2023-3961 severity moderate: SUSE including 516 source package names (amazon/suse-sles-15-sp1-chost-byos-v20210304-hvm-ssd-x86_64, amazon/suse-sles-15-sp1-chost-byos-v20220127-hvm-ssd-x86_64, …), 1647 product×package rows across 90 product lines (Image SLES15-SP5-Azure-3P, Image SLES15-SP5-Azure-Basic, … (90 product lines)): Known Not Affected 1130, Fixed 286, Known Affected 231. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-3961/
ubuntu medium CVE-2023-3961 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (samba), 8 status rows across 8 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, lunar, mantic, trusty, upstream, xenial): not-affected 7, needs-triage 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2023-3961

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-3961

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
samba samba < 4.17.12 cpe:2.3:a:samba:samba:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
samba samba >= 4.18.0, < 4.18.8 cpe:2.3:a:samba:samba:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
samba samba >= 4.19.0, < 4.19.1 cpe:2.3:a:samba:samba:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat storage 3.0 cpe:2.3:a:redhat:storage:3.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux 8.0 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux:8.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux_eus 9.0 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_eus:9.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 39 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:39:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2023-3961

cvelogic Threat Intelligence