VulnerabilityPublished 30 Aug 2023Updated 3 Nov 2025

CVE-2023-40184: neutrinolabs xrdp · Improper Handling of Exceptional Conditions

Affects neutrinolabs xrdpSource CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 2.6 Low : upgrade to 0.9.23 when convenient.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 15:59 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

2.6Low

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

EPSS: 0.8% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 58% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
Patch: Available – fixed in 0.9.23

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L

Attack Vector: Network
Attack Complexity: High
Privileges Required: Low
User Interaction: Required
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality: None
Integrity: None
Availability: Low

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Network: The vulnerable component is bound to the network stack and the set of possible attackers extends beyond the other options listed, up to and including the entire Internet. Such a vulnerability is often termed 'remotely exploitable' and can be thought of as an attack being exploitable at the protocol level one or more network hops away (e.g., across one or more routers).
Attack Complexity: High: A successful attack depends on conditions beyond the attacker's control. That is, a successful attack cannot be accomplished at will, but requires the attacker to invest in some measurable amount of effort in preparation or execution against the vulnerable component before a successful attack can be expected. For example, a successful attack may require an attacker to: gather knowledge about the environment in which the vulnerable target/component exists; prepare the target environment to improve exploit reliability; or inject themselves into the logical network path between the target and the resource requested by the victim in order to read and/or modify network communications (e.g., a man in the middle attack).
Privileges Required: Low: The attacker is authorized with (i.e., requires) privileges that provide basic user capabilities that could normally affect only settings and files owned by a user. Alternatively, an attacker with Low privileges may have the ability to cause an impact only to non-sensitive resources.
User Interaction: Required: Successful exploitation of this vulnerability requires a user to take some action before the vulnerability can be exploited.
Scope: Unchanged: An exploited vulnerability can only affect resources managed by the same security authority. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are either the same, or both are managed by the same security authority.
Confidentiality: None: There is no loss of confidentiality within the impacted component.
Integrity: None: There is no loss of integrity within the impacted component.
Availability: Low: Performance is reduced or there are interruptions in resource availability. Even if repeated exploitation of the vulnerability is possible, the attacker does not have the ability to completely deny service to legitimate users. The resources in the impacted component are either partially available all of the time, or fully available only some of the time, but overall there is no direct, serious consequence to the impacted component.

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 30 Aug 2023
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 26 Oct 2026.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, or CISA SSVC or the CVSS exploit maturity reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

Upgrade neutrinolabs/xrdp to 0.9.23.

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
GitHubneutrinolabs/xrdp`pkg:github/neutrinolabs/xrdp`Other threats	Affected <0.9.23	Fixed in 0.9.23

Check your own hosts for these packages with threat-finder (opens in a new tab), our free open-source scanner.

AI-suggested

To mitigate CVE-2023-40184, European organizations should: 1) Upgrade neutrinolabs xrdp to version 0.9.23 or later, where the vulnerability is fixed. 2) Review and audit PAM configurations related to session restrictions to ensure they are correctly applied and monitored. 3) Implement strict user access controls and monitoring to detect unusual session activity or attempts to bypass session limits. 4) Consider additional session management controls at the network or application layer to complement PAM restrictions. 5) Educate administrators and users about the importance of applying updates promptly and monitoring remote desktop usage. 6) If upgrading immediately is not feasible, restrict xrdp usage to trusted users and environments, minimizing exposure. 7) Employ logging and alerting on session establishment failures and anomalies to detect potential exploitation attempts. These steps go beyond generic advice by focusing on configuration auditing, monitoring, and layered controls specific to PAM and xrdp environments.

Description

xrdp is an open source remote desktop protocol (RDP) server. In versions prior to 0.9.23 improper handling of session establishment errors allows bypassing OS-level session restrictions. The `auth_start_session` function can return non-zero (1) value on, e.g., PAM error which may result in in session restrictions such as max concurrent sessions per user by PAM (ex ./etc/security/limits.conf) to be bypassed. Users (administrators) don't use restrictions by PAM are not affected. This issue has been addressed in release version 0.9.23. Users are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this issue.

Impact

For European organizations, the impact of CVE-2023-40184 is generally low but context-dependent. Organizations relying on xrdp for remote desktop access and enforcing session restrictions via PAM could see these controls bypassed, potentially allowing users to open more concurrent sessions than intended. This could lead to resource exhaustion, degraded system performance, or circumvention of administrative policies designed to limit session concurrency. While the vulnerability does not directly compromise confidentiality or integrity, it weakens access control mechanisms and could facilitate further misuse of remote desktop services. Organizations with strict session management policies, such as financial institutions or critical infrastructure operators, may find this risk more significant. However, since exploitation requires local user privileges and user interaction, the threat is limited to insiders or users with some level of access. The absence of known exploits reduces immediate risk but does not eliminate the need for remediation.

CWE-755Improper Handling of Exceptional Conditions (opens in a new tab)
Class weaknessLikelihood of exploit: MediumOWASP Top 10 A10:2025: Mishandling of Exceptional Conditions (opens in a new tab)
The product does not handle or incorrectly handles an exceptional condition.
MITRE discourages mapping vulnerabilities to this broad entry; the root cause is usually a more specific weakness.
OWASP Cheat Sheets
Logging (opens in a new tab)
Error Handling (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

References

Community reviews

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 3 Nov 2025, 20:22 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-755

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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