UltraVNC viewer off-by-one stack overflow in ServerInit desktop name parsing
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Network
- Privileges required
- None
- User interaction
- Required
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Impact type
- —
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- Low · Low · High
- Fix status
- No fix listed
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · CNA. Fix status from CNA.
Summary
UltraVNC viewer through 1.8.2.2 contains an off-by-one stack buffer overflow in the RFB ServerInit message handler. In vncviewer/ClientConnection.cpp, when the server-supplied nameLength equals exactly 2024 the code declares a 2024-byte stack buffer _dn[2024] and calls ReadString(_dn, 2024). ReadString writes the NUL terminator at buf[length], i.e., _dn[2024], one byte past the end of the stack buffer. A malicious VNC server can trigger this condition by advertising a desktop name of length 2024 in its ServerInit message. On release builds without stack canaries the single-byte NUL overwrite adjacent stack data. On builds with /GS stack protection the canary is corrupted and the process terminates, resulting in denial of service. User interaction (connecting the viewer to the malicious server) is required.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3
- Exploitation
- None
- Automatable
- No
- Technical impact
- Partial
The decision (Track, Attend, Act) also depends on your mission and well-being impact; see CISA's SSVC guide.
Affected products
Remediation
No fixed version listed by the sources yet.
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-7831
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-38w7-mq68-3h8q
References
More uvnc Ultravnc vulnerabilities
- TI-2020-19268 UltraVNC Launcher 1.2.4.0 - 'RepeaterHost' Denial of Service CVSS 4.0MEDIUM 6.7
- TI-2026-04323 UltraVNC Service version.dll uncontrolled search path CVSS 4.0HIGH 7.3
- TI-2020-19267 UltraVNC Launcher 1.2.4.0 - 'Password' Denial of Service CVSS 4.0MEDIUM 6.7
- TI-2026-06899 UltraVNC repeater HTTP server global buffer overflow via long URI (pre-auth RCE) CVSS 4.0CRITICAL 9.3
- TI-2019-05946 Heap-based buffer overflow in Kaspersky Lab UltraVNC CVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
- TI-2019-05945 Heap-based buffer overflow in Kaspersky Lab UltraVNC CVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
Sources
- CVE-2026-7831 · CVE Program
- CVE-2026-7831 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-38w7-mq68-3h8q · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
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