Cyber Resilience

CVE-2026-27015

Freerdp ≤ 3.23.0

Public PoC
Published
25 February 2026
Modified
27 February 2026
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v4 5.0
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:A/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:P/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X
EPSS Score 0.0026 17th percentile
Risk Priority 35 floored blend · peak EPSS

CVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.

Summary

CVE-2026-27015 is a medium-severity Reachable Assertion (CWE-617) vulnerability in Freerdp Freerdp. Its CVSS base score is 5.0 (Medium).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Application or System Exploitation (T1499.004); ranked at the 17th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SA-11 (Developer Testing and Evaluation) and SA-8 (Security and Privacy Engineering Principles) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

FreeRDP is a free implementation of the Remote Desktop Protocol. Prior to version 3.23.0, a missing bounds check in `smartcard_unpack_read_size_align()` (`libfreerdp/utils/smartcard_pack.c:1703`) allows a malicious RDP server to crash the FreeRDP client via a reachable `WINPR_ASSERT` → `abort()`. The crash occurs…

more

in upstream builds where `WITH_VERBOSE_WINPR_ASSERT=ON` (default in FreeRDP 3.22.0 / current WinPR CMake defaults). Smartcard redirection must be explicitly enabled by the user (e.g., `xfreerdp /smartcard`; `/smartcard-logon` implies `/smartcard`). Version 3.23.0 fixes the issue.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1499.004 Application or System Exploitation Impact
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities that can cause an application or system to crash and deny availability to users.
T1499 Endpoint Denial of Service Impact
Adversaries may perform Endpoint Denial of Service (DoS) attacks to degrade or block the availability of services to users.
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2026-33952Same product: Freerdp Freerdp
CVE-2026-33977Same product: Freerdp Freerdp
CVE-2026-31884Same product: Freerdp Freerdp
CVE-2026-64621Same product: Freerdp Freerdp
CVE-2026-33995Same product: Freerdp Freerdp
CVE-2026-44422Same product: Freerdp Freerdp
CVE-2026-29776Same product: Freerdp Freerdp
CVE-2026-25952Same product: Freerdp Freerdp
CVE-2026-23884Same product: Freerdp Freerdp
CVE-2026-33983Same product: Freerdp Freerdp

Affected Assets

freerdp
freerdp
≤ 3.23.0

Mitigating Controls

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

Developer testing and evaluation finds reachable assertions during development.

Security engineering principles discourage use of assertions for handling untrusted input.

Validating untrusted inputs structurally prevents attacker data from reaching and triggering assertions.

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

PR.PS-06 mostly match
prevents

Secure SDLC practices directly prevent unsafe assertions from being coded in reachable paths.

DE.CM-09 partial match
prevents

Runtime monitoring of software can detect assertion-triggered crashes as adverse events.

ID.RA-01 partial match
prevents

Vulnerability identification processes can discover and record reachable-assertion flaws before deployment.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

finds

Security testing in development can detect reachable assertions before release, reducing the likelihood of exploitation.

prevents

Secure development lifecycle mandates defensive coding and input validation that prevent reachable assertions from being triggered by untrusted data.

prevents

Application security requirements can specify that assertions must not be reachable from attacker-controlled inputs.

prevents

Secure architecture principles discourage the use of assertions for runtime error handling that an attacker could exploit.

prevents

Secure coding standards explicitly ban the use of assert() or equivalent statements that can be triggered by external input.

References