What’s Vulnerable › Vulnerabilities

CVE-2026-25959: FreeRDP has heap-use-after-free in xf_cliprdr_provide_data_

• Severity: critical (CVSS 9.8 v3.1)
• 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: yes
• Published: 2026-02-25 · updated 2026-06-17
• Weakness: CWE-416

Description

FreeRDP is a free implementation of the Remote Desktop Protocol. Prior to version 3.23.0, `xf_cliprdr_provide_data_` passes freed `pDstData` to `XChangeProperty` because the cliprdr channel thread calls `xf_cliprdr_server_format_data_response` which converts and uses the clipboard data without holding any lock, while the X11 event thread concurrently calls `xf_cliprdr_clear_cached_data` → `HashTable_Clear` which frees the same data via `xf_cached_data_free`, triggering a heap use after free. Version 3.23.0 fixes the issue.

Affected products

• FreeRDP: before 3.23.0 — fixed in 3.23.0

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: FreeRDP 3.23.0. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

• https://github.com/FreeRDP/FreeRDP/blob/5c7aae27d0417b42b4806c2a5c583ca39dd9ef1e/client/X11/xf_cliprdr.c#L1229-L1243
• https://github.com/FreeRDP/FreeRDP/blob/5c7aae27d0417b42b4806c2a5c583ca39dd9ef1e/client/X11/xf_cliprdr.c#L1337-L1344
• https://github.com/FreeRDP/FreeRDP/blob/5c7aae27d0417b42b4806c2a5c583ca39dd9ef1e/client/X11/xf_cliprdr.c#L200-L208
• https://github.com/FreeRDP/FreeRDP/blob/5c7aae27d0417b42b4806c2a5c583ca39dd9ef1e/client/X11/xf_cliprdr.c#L2295
• https://github.com/FreeRDP/FreeRDP/blob/5c7aae27d0417b42b4806c2a5c583ca39dd9ef1e/client/X11/xf_cliprdr.c#L2323-L2334
• https://github.com/FreeRDP/FreeRDP/blob/5c7aae27d0417b42b4806c2a5c583ca39dd9ef1e/client/X11/xf_cliprdr.c#L2363
• https://github.com/FreeRDP/FreeRDP/blob/5c7aae27d0417b42b4806c2a5c583ca39dd9ef1e/client/X11/xf_cliprdr.c#L933
• https://github.com/FreeRDP/FreeRDP/commit/d3e8b3b9365be96a4f11dda149d71b3287227d0a
• https://github.com/FreeRDP/FreeRDP/security/advisories/GHSA-78xg-v4p2-4w3c
• https://github.com/FreeRDP/FreeRDP/security/advisories/GHSA-78xg-v4p2-4w3c

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