CVE-2026-33145 xrdp: Authenticated RCE via unsanitized AlternateShell execution in xrdp-sesman
Authenticated attackers can execute arbitrary commands on xrdp servers via unsanitized AlternateShell parameters during session initialization.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Any signed-in user
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2026-33145?
CVE-2026-33145 is a medium-severity command injection vulnerability in neutrinolabs xrdp, published on 17 Apr 2026. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.
Official description
xrdp is an open source RDP server. Versions through 0.10.5 allow an authenticated remote user to execute arbitrary commands on the server due to unsafe handling of the AlternateShell parameter in xrdp-sesman. When the AllowAlternateShell setting is enabled (which is the default when not explicitly configured), xrdp accepts a client-supplied AlternateShell value and executes it via /bin/sh -c during session initialization. This results in shell-interpreted execution of unsanitized, user-controlled input. This behavior effectively provides a scriptable remote command execution primitive over RDP within the security context of the authenticated user, occurring prior to normal window manager startup. This can bypass expected session initialization flows and operational assumptions that restrict execution to interactive desktop environments. This issue has been fixed in version 0.10.6.
Weakness: CWE-78
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-33145?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Neutrinolabs Xrdp.
How do I fix CVE-2026-33145?
Upgrade to a fixed version.
Upgrade, and pass arguments to programs as a list instead of through a shell. More about Command injection.
Is CVE-2026-33145 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-33145 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in neutrinolabs xrdp
- CVE-2026-41252 xrdp: lib_palette_update Heap Buffer Overflow & RCE
- CVE-2026-32105 xrdp: RDP MAC signature (dataSignature) never verified on receive — integrity bypass in non-TLS mode
- CVE-2026-44178 xrdp: Channel Data Forwarding Fixed-Size Buffer Overflow
- CVE-2026-32107 xrdp: Fail-open privilege drop in sesexec — child processes may execute as root if setuid fails
- CVE-2026-33689 xrdp: Pre-authentication out-of-bounds reads in channel parsers
Sources
Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2026-33145, GHSA-rmvv-7633-fg7h, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-33145.