FreeRDP, the open-source implementation of Microsoft’s Remote Desktop Protocol that allows users to connect to remote Windows systems and other RDP-compatible environments from Linux, BSD, macOS, Windows, and Android, has released version 3.27.
The software now defaults to TLS security level 2, with TLS 1.2 as the minimum version. Clients can override these settings using the /tls:seclevel: and /tls:enforce: options, while servers can adjust the minimum TLS version and security level through FreeRDP settings.
This update also enforces stricter defaults for encrypted RDP connections. While it may reduce compatibility with older or weaker TLS configurations, it increases security for current deployments. In light of this, administrators connecting to legacy systems should review their TLS settings if connections fail after the update.
On the security side, FreeRDP 3.27 includes five GitHub security advisories, but the summary does not provide full details. In addition, Azure and Entra support has been enhanced with new extensions that improve connection reliability, including support for known but undocumented behaviors.
On top of that, the release introduces keyboard mapping improvements, such as fixes for Japanese keyboards and numpad corrections. Clipboard handling is also improved, with better performance for large file transfers and fixes for SDL3 clipboard file handling.
FreeRDP 3.27 also introduces client-side statistics logging APIs. By default, these print trace-level information at the end of a session, and the data can also be queried during a connection to display selected connection details.
Additional changes include FIPS mode improvements, build system updates, proxy cleanup, strengthened bounds checks, fullscreen restore fixes, Windows client handling improvements, and various internal updates across WinPR, FreeRDP’s portability and runtime library.
For additional details, see the announcement. FreeRDP 3.27 is now available from the project’s release server.
