CVE-2026-44978xrdp: Unchecked FIPS padding length in standard RDP Security causes heap out-of-bounds read in HMAC verification
- 5.3MediumCVSS base score
- 0.53%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 55% of all CVEs
- NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
- NonePublic exploitsnone known yet
Description
xrdp is an open source RDP server. Versions 0.10.6 and prior contain a heap out-of-bounds read vulnerability within the FIPS-specific receive paths. This vulnerability does not affect the default configuration of xrdp. The vulnerability is only exploitable when the security layer is set to security_layer=negotiate or security_layer=rdp, and the crypto level is changed to crypt_level=fips in xrdp.ini. In this specific non-default mode, the server fails to validate the FIPS padding length field, leading to a pointer underflow and a subsequent negative length calculation. An unauthenticated remote attacker can exploit this by sending a crafted FIPS-protected PDU, causing a heap out-of-bounds read that results in a process crash and denial of service (DoS). However, since xrdp forks a new process for each connection by default, an out-of-bounds read causing a process crash is unlikely to bring down the entire xrdp service. This issue has been fixed in version 0.10.6.1.
Timeline
ID reserved
By GitHub_M
- 2 months later
· 2 months later
Published
- 1 day later
· 1 day 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 | Medium5.3 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L |
| NVDNVD · Analyzed | 3.1 | Medium5.3 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 0.53% · top 55% of all CVEs (13 Nov 2026)
- CISA SSVC
- Exploitation: none · Automatable: yes · Technical impact: partial
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: Medium 5.3.
Affected products
- affected < 0.10.6.1
References
References2
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-2026-46030 (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-2026-44978)Record last updated .