SB2017020301 - NULL dereference when processing SMB traffic in Microsoft Windows

Description

This security bulletin contains information about 1 security vulnerability.

1) NULL pointer dereference (CVE-ID: CVE-2017-0016)

The vulnerability allows a remote attacker to cause denial of service.

The vulnerability exists due to a NULL pointer dereference error when processing Server Message Block (SMB) network traffic. A remote attacker can send specially crafted response, containing too many bytes following the structure defined in the SMB2 TREE_CONNECT Response structure and cause the affected system to crash.

Successful exploitation of the vulnerability may allow an attacker to perform a denial of service (DoS) attack.

Note: the exploit code for this vulnerability is publicly available.

Remediation

Install update from vendor's website.

References

• http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/867968 
• https://github.com/lgandx/PoC/tree/master/SMBv3%20Tree%20Connect
• https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/security/MS17-012