High severity · published Aug 21, 2026
CVE-2026-50538
libvncclient Tight decoder has an attacker-controlled heap out-of-bounds write
8.8
CVSS
0.4%
EPSS
No
On KEV
Description
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.
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
Required
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High
Scope
Unchanged
Exploitation
Is it being used?
Exploit prediction (EPSS)0.4% · higher than 34% of CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo evidence yet
CISA KEVNot listed
Ransomware campaign useNot known
Affected products
Which versions
LI
libvncserver · LibVNC
>= 0.9.12, <= 0.9.15 · source: vendor
References
NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-50538
CVE.org
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-50538
github.com
https://github.com/LibVNC/libvncserver/commit/540332be3e0acc566fa64da6f1b4680c72c724dd
github.com
https://github.com/LibVNC/libvncserver/security/advisories/GHSA-v9pm-47h4-jcq8
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