What’s Vulnerable › Vulnerabilities

CVE-2011-10027: AOL Desktop 9.6 RTX Stack-Based Buffer Overflow

• Severity: high (CVSS 8.4 v4.0)
• Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
• EPSS: 0.6% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
• Public exploit or detection template: none known
• Published: 2025-08-20 · updated 2026-06-16
• Weakness: CWE-121

Description

AOL Desktop 9.6 contains a buffer overflow vulnerability in its Tool\rich.rct component when parsing .rtx files. By embedding an overly long string in a hyperlink tag, an attacker can trigger a stack-based buffer overflow due to the use of unsafe strcpy operations. This allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code when a victim opens a malicious .rtx file. AOL Desktop is end-of-life and no longer supported. Users are encouraged to migrate to AOL Desktop Gold or alternative platforms.

Affected products

• AOL Inc. AOL Desktop: through 9.6

References

• https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rapid7/metasploit-framework/master/modules/exploits/windows/fileformat/aol_desktop_linktag.rb
• https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/16085
• https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/16107
• https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/17150
• https://www.fortiguard.com/encyclopedia/ips/26516
• https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/aol-desktop-rtx-stack-based-buffer-overflow

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