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FreeRDP EUVDEUVD-2026-102554

| CVE-2026-111373 MEDIUM
NULL Pointer Dereference (CWE-476)
2026-10-16 VulnCheck GHSA-v777-vh94-53m6
6.9
CVSS 4.0 · Vendor: VulnCheck
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Attack ChainAIDerived

Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain

  1. Access
    Victim connects through attacker-controlled RDP gateway
  2. Exploit
    Gateway sends zero-length websocket ping frame
  3. Execution
    websocket_reply_pong passes NULL stream to websocket_reply_close
  4. Impact
    Assertion failure crashes client process (DoS)

Vulnerability Assessment

Weakness
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A10:2025 - Mishandling of Exceptional Conditions
ASVS 5.0
V16 - Security Logging and Error Handling Null pointer safety, defensive checks
MITRE ATT&CK

1 technique across 1 tactic: Impact

The technique list with ATT&CK links and the kill-chain view is part of the Basic plan and up.

Exploitation Conditions

Exploitation requires that the victim's FreeRDP client (any version before 3.32.0) connects over the websocket gateway transport through a gateway the attacker controls or can man-in-the-middle; the malicious gateway then sends a zero-length (empty payload) websocket ping frame, causing websocket_reply_pong to pass a NULL stream to websocket_reply_close and trigger an assertion failure. Limiting factors: the attacker must occupy the gateway position (not arbitrary remote attacker), only the websocket transport path is affected, and the impact is restricted to crashing the client process - there is no code execution, privilege gain, or data disclosure.

Impact

This is a client-side denial-of-service with modest real-world priority. The CVSS 4.0 vector (CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N, score 6.9 Medium) reflects network reachability with low complexity and no authentication, but impact is confined to availability (VA:L) with zero confidentiality or integrity impact - consistent with the CWE-476 NULL pointer dereference crashing a single client process. No EPSS score, CISA KEV listing, POC, or SSVC decision data was provided, so there are no amplifying exploitation signals; exploitation status is 'no public exploit identified at time of analysis.' The most important nuance the raw CVSS understates is the attacker-position requirement: the description specifies a 'malicious gateway,' meaning the attacker must control (or MITM) the RDP gateway the victim connects through - this is not opportunistic internet-wide exploitation despite the AV:N/PR:N/UI:N vector. Net assessment: a genuine but low-urgency, low-severity availability bug, not a high-impact priority; the PR:N/UI:N vector slightly overstates realistic exploitability because it does not capture the malicious-gateway precondition.

Exploit ScenarioDerived

An attacker who operates or has compromised an RDP gateway (or can MITM a victim's gateway connection) waits for a FreeRDP-based client to connect over the websocket transport, then sends a zero-length websocket ping frame. The client's websocket_reply_pong passes a NULL stream into websocket_reply_close, hitting an assertion that terminates the client process. No public exploit code was identified, but the trigger is trivial to reproduce for anyone controlling the gateway.

This Month Plan within 30 days. Why: MEDIUM severity (CVSS 4.0-6.9).
Patch available 0.2% exploitation probability (EPSS)

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AnalysisAIv1 – Oct 16, 2026

Denial of service in FreeRDP clients before 3.32.0: a NULL pointer dereference in the websocket transport lets a malicious or man-in-the-middle gateway crash the client by sending a zero-length websocket ping frame. Affected are all FreeRDP builds prior to 3.32.0 that connect through the websocket gateway transport; the attacker must occupy the gateway position rather than being an arbitrary remote host, and the outcome is limited to terminating the client process with no code execution, privilege gain, or data disclosure. No public exploit code has been identified at time of analysis and there is no confirmed active exploitation, though the low attack complexity and lack of authentication or user interaction keep the practical bar for abuse low for anyone controlling the gateway path.

RemediationAI

Vendor-released patch: upgrade FreeRDP to 3.32.0 or later, which resolves the zero-length-ping handling in the websocket transport; apply the update via your distribution's package channel or the upstream release, and restart any long-running client processes so the fixed binary is in use. Until patching is possible, the most effective compensating control is to avoid reaching RDP endpoints through untrusted or third-party websocket gateways; where a gateway must be used, enforce strict TLS certificate validation and pin or whitelist the expected gateway certificate to blunt man-in-the-middle positioning, accepting that this does not protect against a gateway that is itself malicious or already compromised. Organizations that do not require websocket tunneling can disable that transport (for example by removing/blocking the websocket transport option or the relevant /ws endpoint at the proxy) and rely on standard RDP-over-TCP/UDP instead - the trade-off is loss of HTTP/HTTPS-based traversal for users behind restrictive networks. There is no code-execution risk to mitigate here, so effort should be prioritized based on how many clients depend on websocket gateways and whether those gateways are under your control. Details and references: https://github.com/FreeRDP/FreeRDP/security/advisories/GHSA-83g2-gf92-5c4g and https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/freerdp-before-3.32.0-null-dereference-via-zero-length-websocket-ping.

Affected VersionsENISA

FreeRDP 0 <3.32.0

Affected Packages

euvd freerdp fix: 3.32.0

Source: OSV (Open Source Vulnerabilities)

Affects your stack

Affects 1 package in euvd

Checking this CVE against your own stacks and servers is part of the Basic plan and up.

Technical ContextAI · show details

FreeRDP is an open-source implementation of the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP); this issue lives in its websocket transport layer, which allows RDP traffic to be tunneled over websocket connections (typically through a gateway/proxy). The code path is triggered by an incoming websocket ping frame: the handler websocket_reply_pong is invoked to answer it, and when the ping's payload length is zero it forwards a nullptr stream into websocket_reply_close, which then hits an assertion and aborts the process. The root-cause class is CWE-476 (NULL Pointer Dereference) - missing handling of an empty-payload framing case rather than memory corruption. Only the websocket transport is implicated, so standard TCP/UDP transports are not affected by this specific defect. The affected product is captured broadly under the CPE cpe:2.3:a:freerdp:freerdp:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* with the fixed boundary at 3.32.0.

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  • Exploit and PoC references, threat intelligence from 22 sources

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Severity by source

Vendor (VulnCheck) PRIMARY 6.9 MEDIUM
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
vuln.today AI 5.3 MEDIUM

Network-reachable, low-complexity trigger from the gateway with no victim auth (PR:N/UI:N retained to match the gateway-side attacker model); impact is only a single-process client crash, so C:N/I:N/A:L.

3.1 AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
4.0 AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
Red Hat 5.3 MEDIUM

Primary rating from Vendor (VulnCheck).

CVSS VectorVendor: VulnCheck

Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
Low
Attack Requirements
None
Privileges Required
None
User Interaction
None
Vulnerable system: Confidentiality
None
Vulnerable system: Integrity
None
Vulnerable system: Availability
Low
Subsequent system: Confidentiality
None
Subsequent system: Integrity
None
Subsequent system: Availability
None

Lifecycle Timeline

2
Patch available
Oct 16, 2026 - 03:00 EUVD
CVE Published
Oct 16, 2026 - 01:17 cve.org
MEDIUM 6.9

DescriptionCVE.org

FreeRDP before 3.32.0 contains a NULL pointer dereference vulnerability in the websocket transport that allows a malicious gateway to crash clients by sending zero-length pings. When the payload length is zero, websocket_reply_pong passes a nullptr stream to websocket_reply_close, triggering an assertion failure that terminates the client process and causes denial of service.

Threat Intelligence Overview

EPSS Score
0.2%
Top 85% exploitable
Prevalence
High
widely used open-source RDP client library (Remmina, GNOME Connections, xrdp ecosystem)
Social Media
1
Sightings
Data Quality
5 sources
Confidence: Medium
EUVD NVD CVE.org EPSS Vulnrichment Vendor CIRCL GitHub

How this decision was reached

The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.

SignalValue
Severity MEDIUM
CISA KEV No
Public POC No
EPSS 0.2%
Patch available Yes
Active threat No
Deciding rule
MEDIUM severity (CVSS 4.0-6.9)
What every action level means
Emergency Immediate action required. Criteria: CRITICAL + in CISA KEV (actively exploited) without patch, OR CRITICAL + EPSS > 30% without patch, OR CRITICAL + active threat signals without patch.
Act Now Prioritize within 24-48h. Criteria: in KEV with patch available, OR CRITICAL + public POC, OR HIGH + EPSS > 10%, OR CRITICAL + active threat, OR any CRITICAL severity.
This Week Schedule remediation this week. Criteria: HIGH severity (CVSS 7.0-8.9). Patch within normal change window.
This Month Plan within 30 days. Criteria: MEDIUM severity (CVSS 4.0-6.9), lower exploitation probability. Include in regular patch cycle.
Monitor Track and reassess. Criteria: LOW severity (CVSS 0.1-3.9), minimal exploitation risk. No immediate action needed.

SSVC AssessmentENISA

SSVC Decision· derived
Scheduled
Exploitation
None
System Exposure· derived
Open
Automatable
Yes
Human Impact· derived
High
Technical Impact
Partial

Priority Score

34
Low Medium High Critical
KEV: 0
EPSS: 0
CVSS: +34
PoC: 0
Weaponized: 0
Threat intel: 0
Gov advisory: 0

Attack Technique

A null pointer dereference occurs when a program attempts to access memory through a pointer that has been set to NULL (address 0x0).

Denial of Service attacks render applications or systems unavailable by overwhelming resources or triggering failure conditions.

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CVE-2026-25952 CRITICAL POC
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CVE-2026-25959 CRITICAL POC
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CVE-2026-22857 CRITICAL POC
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FreeRDP IRP thread handler has a use-after-free where the IRP is freed by Complete() then accessed on the error path. Fi

CVE-2026-22854 CRITICAL POC
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CVE-2026-22852 CRITICAL POC
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FreeRDP client before 3.20.1 has a heap buffer overflow in AUDIN format processing. A malicious RDP server can corrupt m

CVE-2026-25955 CRITICAL POC
9.8 Feb 25

Use-after-free in FreeRDP xf_AppUpdateWindowFromSurface before 3.23.0. Different code path from CVE-2026-25953. PoC and

CVE-2024-32041 CRITICAL POC
9.8 Apr 22

FreeRDP is a free implementation of the Remote Desktop Protocol. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8), this vulnerability

CVE-2023-40574 CRITICAL POC
9.8 Aug 31

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CVE-2023-40569 CRITICAL POC
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FreeRDP is a free implementation of the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), released under the Apache license. Rated critical

CVE-2023-40567 CRITICAL POC
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Vendor StatusVendor

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