CVE-2018-8797 Memory corruption in rdesktop

What is CVE-2018-8797?

CVE-2018-8797 is a critical memory corruption vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, published on 5 Feb 2019. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

Official description

rdesktop versions up to and including v1.8.3 contain a Heap-Based Buffer Overflow in function process_plane() that results in a memory corruption and probably even a remote code execution.

Weakness: CWE-787, CWE-122

Which versions are affected by CVE-2018-8797?

It affects 3 products.

Products include Debian Debian Linux, Opensuse Leap, Rdesktop Rdesktop.

How do I fix CVE-2018-8797?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

Upgrade to the fixed version. Memory-safe languages, compiler hardening and fuzzing prevent most new cases. More about Memory corruption.

Is CVE-2018-8797 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2018-8797 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Other vulnerabilities in Debian Debian Linux

• CVE-2015-3306 ProFTPD Improper Access Control Exploited Critical 10.0
• CVE-2025-49113 RoundCube Webmail Deserialization of Untrusted Data Exploited Critical 9.9
• CVE-2026-24061 GNU InetUtils Argument Injection Exploited Critical 9.8
• CVE-2025-39682 Linux Kernel Improper Check for Unusual or Exceptional Conditions Exploited Critical 9.8
• CVE-2024-9680 Mozilla Firefox Use-After-Free Exploited Critical 9.8

All Debian Debian Linux vulnerabilities

Sources

• CVE record
• NVD
• OSV
• GitHub advisory
• How this page is made

Also known as ALPINE-CVE-2018-8797, DEBIAN-CVE-2018-8797, GHSA-gpw5-2pf9-cjvc, UBUNTU-CVE-2018-8797.