Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

SecurityWeekSecurityWeek

Vulnerabilities

SMBGhost Vulnerability Allows Privilege Escalation on Windows Systems

Researchers have published proof-of-concept (PoC) exploits to demonstrate that the Windows vulnerability tracked as SMBGhost and CVE-2020-0796 can be exploited for local privilege escalation.

Researchers have published proof-of-concept (PoC) exploits to demonstrate that the Windows vulnerability tracked as SMBGhost and CVE-2020-0796 can be exploited for local privilege escalation.

Microsoft says the vulnerability, which it patched on March 12 with an out-of-band update, can be exploited for remote code execution on SMB clients and servers. The critical flaw, described as “wormable” and related to the way SMB 3.1.1 handles certain requests, affects Windows 10 and Windows Server versions 1903 and 1909.

In attacks aimed at SMB servers, the attacker needs to send specially crafted packets to the targeted system. In the case of clients, the attacker has to convince the targeted user to connect to a malicious SMBv3 server.

Researchers have already created tools that can be used to scan for vulnerable servers, and released PoC exploits that achieve a DoS condition. A PoC for remote code execution has yet to be made public, but cybersecurity firm ZecOps has developed and released a PoC that shows how SMBGhost can be exploited to escalate privileges to SYSTEM.

Researchers Daniel García Gutiérrez and Manuel Blanco Parajón have also made available a PoC that exploits SMBGhost to escalate privileges to SYSTEM.

SMBGhost LPE

ZecOps has also published a blog post with the technical details for local privilege escalation.

A scan conducted by cybersecurity company Kryptos Logic shortly after CVE-2020-0796 was disclosed revealed the existence of roughly 48,000 servers vulnerable to SMBGhost attacks.

Windows users can protect themselves against potential attacks by applying workarounds and mitigations shared by Microsoft or by installing the official patches. However, some users complained that the Windows update containing the patch had been causing problems.

Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.

Related: PoC Exploits Released for Crypto Vulnerability Found by NSA

Related: PoC Exploits Created for Recently Patched ‘BlueGate’ Windows Server Flaws

Related: PoC Exploits Released for Unpatched Edge, IE Vulnerabilities

Written By

Eduard Kovacs (@EduardKovacs) is a managing editor at SecurityWeek. He worked as a high school IT teacher for two years before starting a career in journalism as Softpedia’s security news reporter. Eduard holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial informatics and a master’s degree in computer techniques applied in electrical engineering.

Click to comment

Trending

Daily Briefing Newsletter

Subscribe to the SecurityWeek Email Briefing to stay informed on the latest threats, trends, and technology, along with insightful columns from industry experts.

Join the session as we discuss the challenges and best practices for cybersecurity leaders managing cloud identities.

Register

SecurityWeek’s Ransomware Resilience and Recovery Summit helps businesses to plan, prepare, and recover from a ransomware incident.

Register

Expert Insights

Related Content

Vulnerabilities

Less than a week after announcing that it would suspended service indefinitely due to a conflict with an (at the time) unnamed security researcher...

Data Breaches

OpenAI has confirmed a ChatGPT data breach on the same day a security firm reported seeing the use of a component affected by an...

IoT Security

A group of seven security researchers have discovered numerous vulnerabilities in vehicles from 16 car makers, including bugs that allowed them to control car...

Vulnerabilities

A researcher at IOActive discovered that home security systems from SimpliSafe are plagued by a vulnerability that allows tech savvy burglars to remotely disable...

Risk Management

The supply chain threat is directly linked to attack surface management, but the supply chain must be known and understood before it can be...

Cybercrime

Patch Tuesday: Microsoft calls attention to a series of zero-day remote code execution attacks hitting its Office productivity suite.

Vulnerabilities

Patch Tuesday: Microsoft warns vulnerability (CVE-2023-23397) could lead to exploitation before an email is viewed in the Preview Pane.

Vulnerabilities

The latest Chrome update brings patches for eight vulnerabilities, including seven reported by external researchers.