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Debian LinuxOperating system · Debian

CVE-2023-39355

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2023-08-31
Patch available
A vendor patch is available. No clean upgrade release — apply the published patch.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Public exploit Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click Patch available

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
FreeRDP is a free implementation of the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), released under the Apache license. Versions of FreeRDP on the 3.x release branch before beta3 are subject to a Use-After-Free in processing `RDPGFX_CMDID_RESETGRAPHICS` packets. If `context->maxPlaneSize` is 0, `context->planesBuffer` will be freed. However, without updating `context->planesBuffer`, this leads to a Use-After-Free exploit vector. In most environments this should only result in a crash. This issue has been addressed in version 3.0.0-beta3 and users of the beta 3.x releases are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this vulnerability.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis
How this class of weakness works · CWE-416

Memory is used after it has been freed, so its contents — now potentially attacker-controlled — drive the program's behaviour. With careful heap grooming this becomes code execution. The fix requires disciplined ownership of memory and often a targeted rework of the object lifecycle.

General guidance for the use after free class — the official description and references above are authoritative for this specific CVE. Want a bespoke review and a reviewed fix? Ask our team →

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
Debian LinuxOperating system
Affected:= 10.0
FreerdpApplication
Affected:= 3.0.0

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

dbcve · scoped
Patch available Apply the vendor patch
Vendor patch github.com →
Recommended fix High confidence

FreeRDP 3.0.0-beta3 or later (any stable 3.x release after beta3)

  1. 1. Identify the current FreeRDP version installed on the system using: dpkg -l | grep freerdp or rpm -qi freerdp
  2. 2. For Debian 10.0 systems: Check if updated packages are available via apt-get update && apt-cache policy freerdp2-x11 (or freerdp package name)
  3. 3. If updated packages are available in Debian repositories, upgrade via: apt-get update && apt-get install --upgrade freerdp2-x11
  4. 4. For other distributions or manual installations: Download FreeRDP 3.0.0-beta3 or later from the official GitHub releases: https://github.com/FreeRDP/FreeRDP/releases
  5. 5. Verify the upgrade was successful by checking the new version: freerdp-version or dpkg -l | grep freerdp
  6. 6. Test RDP connections to ensure functionality is maintained after the upgrade
Caveat Upgrade involves moving from pre-beta3 to beta3+ on the 3.x branch; compatibility with older RDP servers should be maintained but test in non-production environment first

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2023-39355 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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