CVE-2026-50538

Summary

LibVNCClient is a library for easy implementation of a VNC client. In versions 0.9.12 through 0.9.15, a malicious (or man-in-the-middle) VNC server can force a connecting libvncclient to write attacker-controlled data past the end of its framebuffer. This is an out-of-bounds heap write with attacker-controlled length, contents, and offset. It needs no authentication (the attacker is the server), works in a default build with default settings, and fires from a single FramebufferUpdate the moment the victim connects. It crashes any client unconditionally (denial of service); we also demonstrated it overwriting an application callback pointer and redirecting execution to attacker-chosen code (code execution) under the default configuration. Commit 540332be3e0acc566fa64da6f1b4680c72c724dd patches the issue.

Affected Software

VendorProductVersion RangeStatus
LibVNClibvncserver>= 0.9.12, <= 0.9.15affected

Weaknesses

  • CWE-122: CWE-122: Heap-based Buffer Overflow
  • CWE-787: CWE-787: Out-of-bounds Write

References