CVE-2023-48235 | overflow in ex address parsing in vim

Vim is an open source command line text editor. When parsing relative ex addresses one may unintentionally cause an overflow. Ironically this happens in the existing overflow check, because the line number becomes negative and LONG_MAX - lnum will cause the overflow. Impact is low, user interaction is required and a crash may not even happen in all situations. This issue has been addressed in commit `060623e` which has been included in release version 9.0.2110. Users are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this vulnerability.

Published: 2023-11-16 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2023-48235 is rated Low Risk (29.4/100): CVSS Low severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.75%). Monitor for updates and reassess as exploit intelligence or EPSS changes.

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

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2023-48235

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 0.04% 0.75% +0.70%
2 2026-04-19 0.07% 0.04% -0.02%
3 2025-11-21 — 0.07% —

Full EPSS history (14 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-48235

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
2.8 3.1 LOW
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L 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: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:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:L)
Might cause slowdowns, glitches, or partial disruption—not a full brick.
 1.3 1.4 [email protected]
4.3 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/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: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:L)
Might cause slowdowns, glitches, or partial disruption—not a full brick.
 2.8 1.4 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2023-48235

OS Trackers for CVE-2023-48235

vendor priority summary link
alpine — CVE-2023-48235: 1 source package rows (vim); 182 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 0, open 182. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2023-48235
debian unimportant CVE-2023-48235 unimportant priority: Debian including 1 source packages (vim), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 3, open 2. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2023-48235
redhat low — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-48235
suse low — https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-48235/
ubuntu low CVE-2023-48235 low priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (vim), 8 status rows across 8 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, lunar, mantic, trusty, upstream, xenial): released 7, needs-triage 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2023-48235

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-48235

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
vim vim < 9.0.2110 cpe:2.3:a:vim:vim:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 37 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:37:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 38 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:38:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 39 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:39:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2023-48235

cvelogic Threat Intelligence