xrdp: Authenticated RCE via unsanitized AlternateShell execution in xrdp-sesman
Summary
xrdp: Authenticated RCE via unsanitized AlternateShell execution in xrdp-sesman
Original description
The description as published by the source.
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.
Source: OSV.dev (Open Source Vulnerabilities) NVD GitHub Advisory OSV
Fix status by distribution
Fixed packages published by each distribution for this CVE
- Debian DEBIAN-CVE-2026-33145 xrdp
- Ubuntu UBUNTU-CVE-2026-33145 xrdp
References
- advisory github.com
- advisory github.com
- advisory nvd.nist.gov
- web github.com