CVE-2026-96541 Gnome-remote-desktop: gnome-remote-desktop: unauthenticated rdp sockets lack a handshake deadline
An unauthenticated remote attacker can exhaust RDP connection slots by holding open incomplete handshakes, preventing legitimate users from connecting.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- None listed
What is CVE-2026-96541?
CVE-2026-96541 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10, published on 23 Sep 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Official 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.
Weakness: CWE-400
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-96541?
How do I fix CVE-2026-96541?
No fix has been published for CVE-2026-96541 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.
Upgrade, then put limits on request size, rate and nesting depth so one client cannot exhaust the service. More about Denial of service.
Is CVE-2026-96541 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-96541 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2026-96541, GHSA-gv4j-r8qw-8qpc, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-96541.