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Fencer Vulns
low 2.6

CVE-2023-40184 json

Improper handling of session establishment errors in xrdp

published 2023-08-30 3 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2023-44784

cvss
2.6
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.9%
EPSS 0.9% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 58%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

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.

Patch / fix

  • neutrinolabs xrdp 0.9.23
  • xrdp Debian 12 0.9.21.1-1+deb12u1
  • xrdp Debian 14, Debian 13 0.9.24-2

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2023-40184

  • xrdp Ubuntu Pro 14.04 LTS 0.6.0-1ubuntu0.1+esm3
  • xrdp Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS 0.6.1-2ubuntu0.3+esm3
  • xrdp Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS 0.9.5-2ubuntu0.1~esm2
  • xrdp Ubuntu Pro 20.04 LTS 0.9.12-1ubuntu0.1+esm1
  • xrdp Ubuntu Pro 22.04 LTS 0.9.17-2ubuntu2+esm1
  • xrdp Ubuntu Pro 24.04 LTS 0.9.24-4ubuntu0.1~esm1

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2023-40184

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • xrdp SLES for SAP 12 SP5, SLES 12 SP5 0.9.10-3.16.1
  • xrdp SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP5, SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP4, openSUSE Leap 15.5 +3 more 0.9.13.1-150200.4.24.1
  • xrdp SLES for SAP 12 SP5, SLES 12 SP5 0.9.10-3.11.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2023:4873-1SUSE-SU-2023:3830-1SUSE-SU-2023:3735-1

  • xrdp openSUSE Tumbleweed 0.9.23.1-1.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2024:13399-1

  • xrdp Alpine 3.24, Alpine 3.23, Alpine 3.22 +4 more 0.9.23-r0

alpine advisories ALPINE-CVE-2023-40184

Alpine secdb © Alpine Linux, from https://secdb.alpinelinux.org via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2023-40184 updated cvss 2.6

xdp: restriction bypass via improper session handling

  • Red Hat All currently supported Red Hat products
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
none
Automatable
no
Technical impact
partial
Assessed
2 y ago

Exploit prediction

0.85% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 58% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 2.6 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
NVD 3.1 6.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Affected products

  • neutrinolabs xrdp

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-755 Improper Handling of Exceptional Conditions

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.