CVE-2022-23478

What is this vulnerability?

CVE-2022-23478 is categorized as a critical Out-of-bounds Write flaw with a CVSS base score of 9.1. Based on our vulnerability intelligence, this issue occurs when the application fails to securely handle untrusted data boundaries.

xrdp is an open source project which provides a graphical login to remote machines using Microsoft Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP). xrdp < v0.9.21 contain a Out of Bound Write in xrdp_mm_trans_process_drdynvc_channel_open() function. There are no known workarounds for this issue. Users are advised to upgrade.

This architectural defect enables adversaries to bypass intended security controls, directly manipulating the application's execution state or data layer. Immediate strategic intervention is required.

Risk Assessment

Impact on Systems

✅ Remote Code Execution: Attackers can overwrite the instruction pointer to redirect execution to malicious shellcode.

✅ Memory Corruption: Overwriting adjacent memory regions can corrupt critical application state, leading to privilege escalation.

✅ Denial of Service: Triggering segmentation faults results in immediate disruption of critical systems.

How to Fix and Mitigate CVE-2022-23478

1. Apply Vendor Patches: Upgrade affected components to their latest, non-vulnerable versions immediately.
2. Implement Input Validation: Ensure all user-supplied data is validated, sanitized, and type-checked before processing.
3. Deploy Runtime Protection: Use Precogs continuous monitoring to detect exploitation attempts in real time.
4. Audit Dependencies: Review and update all third-party libraries and transitive dependencies.

Defending with Precogs AI

xrdp contains an out-of-bounds write vulnerability. Attackers send specially crafted RDP protocol messages to corrupt memory, potentially leading to remote code execution on the server providing the RDP session. Precogs Binary SAST intercepts unsafe pointer arithmetic in network daemons.

Use Precogs to continuously scan your codebase, binaries, APIs, and infrastructure for this vulnerability class and related attack patterns. Our AI-powered detection engine combines static analysis with threat intelligence to identify exploitable weaknesses before attackers do.

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Vulnerability Code Signature

Attack Data Flow

Vulnerable Code Pattern

// ❌ VULNERABLE: Out-of-bounds write
void process_data(char *input) {
    char buffer[64];
    // Taint sink: copies without bounds checking
    strcpy(buffer, input);
}

Secure Code Pattern

// ✅ SECURE: Bounded copy
void process_data(char *input) {
    char buffer[64];
    // Sanitized boundary check
    strncpy(buffer, input, sizeof(buffer) - 1);
    buffer[sizeof(buffer) - 1] = '\0';
}

How Precogs Detects This

Precogs Binary SAST engine explicitly uncovers memory boundary violations and unsafe memory management functions in compiled binaries.\n