The Zero Day Initiative, a zero-day security research firm, announced a new Linux kernel security bug that allows authenticated remote users to disclose sensitive information and run code on vulnerable Linux kernel versions. ZDNet reports: Originally, the Zero Day Initiative ZDI rated it a perfect 10 on the 0 to 10 common Vulnerability Scoring System scale. Now, the hole's "only" a 9.6.... The problem lies in the Linux 5.15 in-kernel Server Message Block (SMB) server, ksmbd. The specific flaw exists within the processing of SMB2_TREE_DISCONNECT commands. The issue results from the lack of validating the existence of an object prior to performing operations on the object. An attacker can leverage this vulnerability to execute code in the kernel context. This new program, which was introduced to the kernel in 2021, was developed by Samsung. Its point was to deliver speedy SMB3 file-serving performance.... Any distro using the Linux kernel 5.15 or above is potentially vulnerable. This includes Ubuntu 22.04, and its descendants; Deepin Linux 20.3; and Slackware 15.

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Ars Technica reports on a dangerously "wormable" Windows vulnerability that allowed attackers to execute malicious code with no authentication required — a vulnerability that was present "in a much broader range of network protocols, giving attackers more flexibility than they had when exploiting the older vulnerability." Microsoft fixed CVE-2022-37958 in September during its monthly Patch Tuesday rollout of security fixes. At the time, however, Microsoft researchers believed the vulnerability allowed only the disclosure of potentially sensitive information. As such, Microsoft gave the vulnerability a designation of "important." In the routine course of analyzing vulnerabilities after they're patched, IBM security researcher Valentina Palmiotti discovered it allowed for remote code execution in much the way EternalBlue did [the flaw used to detonate WannaCry]. Last week, Microsoft revised the designation to critical and gave it a severity rating of 8.1, the same given to EternalBlue.... One potentially mitigating factor is that a patch for CVE-2022-37958 has been available for three months. EternalBlue, by contrast, was initially exploited by the NSA as a zero-day. The NSA's highly weaponized exploit was then released into the wild by a mysterious group calling itself Shadow Brokers. The leak, one of the worst in the history of the NSA, gave hackers around the world access to a potent nation-state-grade exploit. Palmiotti said there's reason for optimism but also for risk: "While EternalBlue was an 0-Day, luckily this is an N-Day with a 3 month patching lead time," said Palmiotti. There's still some risk, Palmiotti tells Ars Technica. "As we've seen with other major vulnerabilities over the years, such as MS17-010 which was exploited with EternalBlue, some organizations have been slow deploying patches for several months or lack an accurate inventory of systems exposed to the internet and miss patching systems altogether." Thanks to Slashdot reader joshuark for sharing the article.

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