CVE-2023-40184Improper handling of session establishment errors in xrdp
- 2.6LowCVSS base score
- 0.85%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 41% of all CVEs
- NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
- NonePublic exploitsnone known yet
Description
xrdp is an open source remote desktop protocol (RDP) server. In versions prior to 0.9.23 improper handling of session establishment errors allows bypassing OS-level session restrictions. The `auth_start_session` function can return non-zero (1) value on, e.g., PAM error which may result in in session restrictions such as max concurrent sessions per user by PAM (ex ./etc/security/limits.conf) to be bypassed. Users (administrators) don't use restrictions by PAM are not affected. This issue has been addressed in release version 0.9.23. Users are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this issue.
Timeline
ID reserved
By GitHub_M
- 21 days later
· 21 days later
Published
- 2 years later
· 2 years later
Record updated
Changes after publication (a new score, a public exploit, EPSS crossing 1, 10 or 50 %, leaving KEV) are kept since November 2026; earlier ones are not known.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| GitHub_MCNA (assigner) | 3.1 | Low2.6 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L |
| NVDNVD · Modified | 3.1 | Medium6.5 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 0.85% · top 41% of all CVEs (13 Nov 2026)
- CISA SSVC
- Exploitation: none · Automatable: no · Technical impact: partial
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: Low 2.6.
Affected products
- affected < 0.9.23
References
References7
- https://github.com/neutrinolabs/xrdp/security/advisories/GHSA-f489-557v-47jq (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRMx_transferred
- https://github.com/neutrinolabs/xrdp/commit/a111a0fdfe2421ef600e40708b5f0168594cfb23 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
- https://github.com/neutrinolabs/xrdp/blame/9bbb2ec68f390504c32f2062847aa3d821a0089a/sesman/sesexec/session.c#L571C5-L571C19 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/[email protected]/message/U5IXMQODV3OIJ7DRQBUQV7PUKNT7SH36/ (opens in a new tab)x_transferred
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/[email protected]/message/SOT237TIHTHPX5YNIWLVNINOEYC7WMG2/ (opens in a new tab)x_transferred
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/[email protected]/message/URO3FKTFBPNKFARAQBEJLI4MH6YS35P5/ (opens in a new tab)x_transferred
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2025/05/msg00018.html (opens in a new tab)
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- EUVD EUVD-2023-44784 (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisories (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://cveledger.app/cve/CVE-2023-40184)Record last updated .