Debian

Means that the patch that I am trying to implement (4.1.16) won't work for the version of Samba in the server (4.1.17).

However, there is no patch specifically for 4.1.17 Samba version.

See the release note here.

It seems that 4.1.7 is a security release for this.

See also note on 'workaround'.

I read from the link you gave to implement the workaround for the security release for samba version 4.1.17.

Thank you for the suggestion.

And since there is no patch specifically for this version, is it a good idea to just upgrade samba itself?

If 4.1.7 contains a fix for the problem (which is what the release note says) that you are worried about, then unless you have other concerns and/or samba has other vulnerabilities, I suggest that if it's not broken, Don't try and fix it. You don't know whether an upgrade will break something else.

Look and see what patches have been issued for 4.1.7 and why. Apply the patches for anything that you're concerned about.

Upgrade to a newer version if that offers new functionality that you could use.

If 4.1.7 has the fix, and you have 4.1.17, you already have it.