Tag Archives: Eternal Blue

CVE-2020-0796 – New Critical SMB V3 Vulnerability. Time to Panic?

22 March 2020

On March 12, 2020 Microsoft published a CVSS V3.1 severity 10 vulnerability in the SMBv3 protocol. CVE-2020-0796 (1), also called CoronaBlue, impacts the Windows 10 client and server versions 1903 and 1909.

The bad news first. CoronaBlue is like Eternalblue/WannaCry a wormable remote code execution vulnerability. A single Windows 10 system with SMBv3 protocol installed and port 445 open to the internet is enough for infiltration of a network.

The good news is that only few systems with Windows 10 version 1903 or 1909 have port 445 exposed to the internet. Theses Windows versions are just too new.

Nevertheless, immediate patching is required because a proof of concept exploit code was published on March 14, 2020.

In addition, Microsoft recommends deactivating SMBv3 compression unless the patches are installed and activated (2).

But the most important advice Microsoft gives is:

Blocking the affected ports at the enterprise perimeter is the best defense to help avoid Internet-based attacks.

This advice holds for all SMB versions. There is no need to access Windows systems through the SMB protocol from the internet. Therefore, this protocol should be blocked by the internet facing firewall of DMZs. No exceptions! Apparently, some thousand CISOs do not care:

Windows systems with SMB ports open to the internet.

Windows systems with SMB ports open to the internet.

Have a great week. And check your firewall rules!

References

  1. NIST NVD. NVD – CVE-2020-0796 [Internet]. NIST Information Technology Laboratory. 2020 [cited 2020 Mar 22]. Available from: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-0796
  2. MSRC. CVE-2020-0796 | Windows SMBv3 Client/Server Remote Code Execution Vulnerability [Internet]. Microsoft Security. [cited 2020 Mar 22]. Available from: https://portal.msrc.microsoft.com/en-US/security-guidance/advisory/CVE-2020-0796

To panic, or not to panic, that is the question: A simple panic calculator

22 October 2017

Last week, I had some interesting discussions about when to panic if a new vulnerability is published. With the concept of critical vulnerabilities in mind, this is an easy task:

My Panic Level Calculator

My Panic Level Calculator

To be honest, the panic in the media about the WPA2 / Krack vulnerability published last week appears somewhat exaggerated. CVE-2017-11292 however, a remote code execution vulnerability in Flash Player published on 16 October 2017, was not discussed in the media at all, although Kaspersky found an exploit on 10 October 2017.

Please keep in mind that critical vulnerability must be mitigated before an exploit is available on the market. The flash player vulnerability shows, that immediate action is required.

Have a great week!