CVE-2026-96541
Description
A denial-of-service flaw was found in gnome-remote-desktop. An unauthenticated remote attacker can open RDP connections without completing the handshake and retain the connection-throttling slots indefinitely because no pre-authentication handshake deadline is enforced. By exhausting the global connection limit, an attacker can prevent new RDP clients from connecting until a holding socket is closed.
Statement
This Moderate-impact denial-of-service flaw in gnome-remote-desktop allows an unauthenticated remote attacker to prevent new RDP connections. By holding open unauthenticated RDP sockets indefinitely, an attacker can exhaust the default global connection limit. Exploitation requires connecting from at least two distinct source IP addresses to fully utilize the default per-source and global connection limits. Existing authenticated RDP sessions remain unaffected.
Mitigation
Disable the RDP listener when it is not required, or restrict access to the RDP port to trusted networks or hosts at the network boundary. No application-level mitigation that preserves unrestricted RDP access is known.
Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) Score Details
Info alert:Important note
CVSS scores for open source components depend on vendor-specific factors (e.g. version or build chain). Therefore, Red Hat's score and impact rating can be different from NVD and other vendors. Red Hat remains the authoritative CVE Naming Authority (CNA) source for its products and services (see Red Hat classifications).
The following CVSS metrics and score provided are preliminary and subject to review.
CVSS v3 Score Breakdown
| Red Hat | NVD | cve.org | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base Score | 7.5 | N/A | 7.5 |
| Attack Vector | Network | N/A | Network |
| Attack Complexity | Low | N/A | Low |
| Privileges Required | None | N/A | None |
| User Interaction | None | N/A | None |
| Scope | Unchanged | N/A | Unchanged |
| Confidentiality | None | N/A | None |
| Integrity Impact | None | N/A | None |
| Availability Impact | High | N/A | High |
Vector
Red Hat: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
cve.org: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Understanding the Weakness (CWE)
Availability
Technical Impact: DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart; DoS: Resource Consumption (CPU); DoS: Resource Consumption (Memory); DoS: Resource Consumption (Other)
If an attacker can trigger the allocation of the limited resources, but the number or size of the resources is not controlled, then the most common result is denial of service. This would prevent valid users from accessing the product, and it could potentially have an impact on the surrounding environment, i.e., the product may slow down, crash due to unhandled errors, or lock out legitimate users. For example, a memory exhaustion attack against an application could slow down the application as well as its host operating system.
Access Control,Other
Technical Impact: Bypass Protection Mechanism; Other
In some cases it may be possible to force the product to "fail open" in the event of resource exhaustion. The state of the product -- and possibly the security functionality - may then be compromised.
Acknowledgements
Upstream acknowledges Bynario Atlas as the original reporter.
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