CVE-2022-3278 | NULL Pointer Dereference in vim/vim

Exp

NULL Pointer Dereference in GitHub repository vim/vim prior to 9.0.0552.

Published: 2022-09-23 Last update: 2026-06-17 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2022-3278 is rated Exploit Available (55.8/100): CVSS Medium severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.80%). Core evidence: 1 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). Mandatory action: Public exploits are available—assess exposure, apply mitigations, and prioritize patching.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Public exploit references (Exploit-DB) for CVE-2022-3278

EDB-ID Source Kind Published Link
nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2022-3278

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-06-15 0.05% 0.80% +0.75%
2 2026-03-02 0.04% 0.05% +0.01%
3 2025-12-24 0.04%

Full EPSS history (16 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2022-3278

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
5.5 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:R)
A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
1.8 3.6 [email protected]
6.8 3.0 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:L/A:L Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:R)
A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:L)
Attackers could change some data, but it’s limited—not everything goes.
Availability (A:L)
Might cause slowdowns, glitches, or partial disruption—not a full brick.
2.1 4.7 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2022-3278

OS Trackers for CVE-2022-3278

vendor priority summary link
alpine medium CVE-2022-3278: 1 source package rows (vim); 127 state rows across 7 repos (3.17-main, 3.18-main, 3.19-main, 3.20-main, 3.21-main, 3.22-main, edge-main); fixed 7, open 120. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2022-3278
debian unimportant CVE-2022-3278 unimportant priority: Debian including 1 source packages (vim), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 4, open 1. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2022-3278
gentoo low CVE-2022-3278: 1 GLSA(s) (202305-16), 3 atom(s) (app-editors/gvim, app-editors/vim, app-editors/vim-core); latest impact low. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2022-3278
redhat low https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2022-3278
suse medium CVE-2022-3278 severity moderate: SUSE including 272 source package names (11.1-2.2.326:vim-9.0.0814-150000.5.28.1, 11.1-2.2.326:vim-data-common-9.0.0814-150000.5.28.1, …), 691 product×package rows across 193 product lines (Container ses/7.1/ceph/haproxy, Container suse/sle-micro-rancher/5.2, … (193 product lines)): Fixed 573, Known Affected 116, Known Not Affected 2. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2022-3278/
ubuntu low CVE-2022-3278 low priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (vim), 8 status rows across 8 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, kinetic, lunar, trusty, upstream, xenial): not-affected 5, ignored 1, needs-triage 1, released 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2022-3278

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2022-3278

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
vim vim < 9.0.0552 cpe:2.3:a:vim:vim:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 35 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:35:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 36 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:36:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 37 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:37:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2022-3278

cvelogic Threat Intelligence