CVE-2023-36425: Windows Distributed File System (DFS) Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

Overview

Severity
High (CVSS 8)
CVSS Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H/E:U/RL:O/RC:C
Category
Remote Code Execution
Exploit Status
Not Exploited
Exploitation Likelihood
Less Likely
Patch Tuesday
2023-Nov
Released
2023-11-14
EPSS Score
0.21% (percentile: 43.1%)

FAQ

According to the CVSS metric, privileges required is high (PR:H). What does that mean for this vulnerability? Successful exploitation of this vulnerability requires the attacker or targeted user to have both domain user and delegate management permissions on a non-default DFS namespace. How could an attacker exploit this vulnerability? An attacker could exploit a DFS namespace (non-default) out-of-bound write vulnerability that results in heap corruption, which could then be used to perform arbitrary code execution on the server's dfssvc.exe process which runs as SYSTEM user. According to the CVSS metric, attack complexity is high (AC:H). What does that mean for this vulnerability? In a real-world attack scenario, a domain admin would have to configure their DFS namespace in such a way to add a low privileged domain user to the delegate management permission on a certain DFS namespace. In essence, a successful exploitation of this vulnerability would require a non-default and unlikely configuration. According to the CVSS metric, a successful exploitation could lead to a scope change (S:C). What does this mean for this vulnerability? An exploited vulnerability can affect resources beyond the security scope managed by the security authority of the vulnerable component. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are different and managed by different security authorities.

Affected Products (36)

Windows

  • Windows 10 Version 1809 for 32-bit Systems
  • Windows 10 Version 1809 for x64-based Systems
  • Windows 10 Version 1809 for ARM64-based Systems
  • Windows Server 2019
  • Windows Server 2019 (Server Core installation)
  • Windows Server 2022
  • Windows Server 2022 (Server Core installation)
  • Windows 11 version 21H2 for x64-based Systems
  • Windows 11 version 21H2 for ARM64-based Systems
  • Windows 10 Version 21H2 for 32-bit Systems
  • Windows 10 Version 21H2 for ARM64-based Systems
  • Windows 10 Version 21H2 for x64-based Systems
  • Windows 11 Version 22H2 for ARM64-based Systems
  • Windows 11 Version 22H2 for x64-based Systems
  • Windows 10 Version 22H2 for x64-based Systems
  • Windows 10 Version 22H2 for ARM64-based Systems
  • Windows 10 Version 22H2 for 32-bit Systems
  • Windows 11 Version 23H2 for ARM64-based Systems
  • Windows 11 Version 23H2 for x64-based Systems
  • Windows Server 2022, 23H2 Edition (Server Core installation)
  • Windows 10 for 32-bit Systems
  • Windows 10 for x64-based Systems
  • Windows 10 Version 1607 for 32-bit Systems
  • Windows 10 Version 1607 for x64-based Systems
  • Windows Server 2016
  • Windows Server 2016 (Server Core installation)

ESU

  • Windows Server 2008 for 32-bit Systems Service Pack 2
  • Windows Server 2008 for 32-bit Systems Service Pack 2 (Server Core installation)
  • Windows Server 2008 for x64-based Systems Service Pack 2
  • Windows Server 2008 for x64-based Systems Service Pack 2 (Server Core installation)
  • Windows Server 2008 R2 for x64-based Systems Service Pack 1
  • Windows Server 2008 R2 for x64-based Systems Service Pack 1 (Server Core installation)
  • Windows Server 2012
  • Windows Server 2012 (Server Core installation)
  • Windows Server 2012 R2
  • Windows Server 2012 R2 (Server Core installation)

Security Updates (15)

Acknowledgments

<a href="https://twitter.com/keyz3r0">k0shl</a> with <a href="https://www.cyberkl.com/">Kunlun Lab</a>

Revision History

  • 2023-11-14: Information published.