CVE-2026-96541 is a vulnerability in Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Published on September 23, 2026
Gnome-remote-desktop: gnome-remote-desktop: unauthenticated rdp sockets lack a handshake deadline
A denial-of-service flaw was found in gnome-remote-desktop. An unauthenticated remote attacker can open RDP connections without completing the handshake and retain the connection-throttling slots indefinitely because no pre-authentication handshake deadline is enforced. By exhausting the global connection limit, an attacker can prevent new RDP clients from connecting until a holding socket is closed.
Vulnerability Analysis
CVE-2026-96541 can be exploited with network access, and does not require authorization privileges or user interaction. This vulnerability is considered to have a low attack complexity. An automatable proof of concept (POC) exploit exists. The potential impact of an exploit of this vulnerability is considered to have no impact on confidentiality and integrity, and a high impact on availability.
Timeline
Reported to Red Hat.
Made public.
Weakness Type
What is a Resource Exhaustion Vulnerability?
The software does not properly control the allocation and maintenance of a limited resource, thereby enabling an actor to influence the amount of resources consumed, eventually leading to the exhaustion of available resources.
CVE-2026-96541 has been classified to as a Resource Exhaustion vulnerability or weakness.
Products Associated with CVE-2026-96541
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