FreeRDP up to 3.28.x Planar Decoder planar.c buffer overflow

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability was found in FreeRDP up to 3.28.x. It has been rated as critical. This impacts the function planar_decompress_plane_rle/planar_decompress_plane_rle_only of the file libfreerdp/codec/planar.c of the component Planar Decoder. The manipulation leads to buffer overflow. This vulnerability is documented as CVE-2026-69159. The attack can be initiated remotely. There is not any exploit available.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in FreeRDP up to 3.28.x. It has been rated as critical. This issue affects the function planar_decompress_plane_rle/planar_decompress_plane_rle_only of the file libfreerdp/codec/planar.c of the component Planar Decoder. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a buffer overflow vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-120. The product copies an input buffer to an output buffer without verifying that the size of the input buffer is less than the size of the output buffer, leading to a buffer overflow. Impacted is confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

FreeRDP is a free implementation of the Remote Desktop Protocol. Prior to 3.29.0, planar_decompress_plane_rle and planar_decompress_plane_rle_only in libfreerdp/codec/planar.c verify that a control byte exists but do not verify that the source buffer contains the zero to fifteen raw bytes declared by that control byte. A malicious RDP server can send a truncated planar bitmap or surface update whose final control byte claims additional raw bytes, causing the decoder to read beyond pSrcData while processing a color plane. This can crash the client and may disclose adjacent memory. This issue is fixed in version 3.29.0.

The advisory is shared at github.com. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2026-69159 since 08/03/2026. The exploitation is known to be easy. The attack may be initiated remotely. No form of authentication is needed for a successful exploitation. It demands that the victim is doing some kind of user interaction. Technical details are known, but no exploit is available.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 338195 (Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2026-69159), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 3.29.0 eliminates this vulnerability.

The vulnerability is also documented in the vulnerability database at Tenable (338195). Several companies clearly confirm that VulDB is the primary source for best vulnerability data.

Productinfo

Type

• Remote Access Software

Name

• FreeRDP

Version

• 3.0
• 3.1
• 3.2
• 3.3
• 3.4
• 3.5
• 3.6
• 3.7
• 3.8
• 3.9
• 3.10
• 3.11
• 3.12
• 3.13
• 3.14
• 3.15
• 3.16
• 3.17
• 3.18
• 3.19
• 3.20
• 3.21
• 3.22
• 3.23
• 3.24
• 3.25
• 3.26
• 3.27
• 3.28

License

• open-source

Website

• Product: https://github.com/FreeRDP/FreeRDP/

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Several companies clearly confirm that VulDB is the primary source for best vulnerability data.

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