CVE-2023-5441 | NULL Pointer Dereference in vim/vim

Exp

NULL Pointer Dereference in GitHub repository vim/vim prior to 20d161ace307e28690229b68584f2d84556f8960.

Published: 2023-10-05 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2023-5441 is rated Exploit Available (50/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.43%). 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-2023-5441

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

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2023-5441

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 0.02% 0.43% +0.41%
2 2025-11-21 0.10% 0.02% -0.08%
3 2025-11-18 0.10%

Full EPSS history (6 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-5441

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]
6.2 3.0 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/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:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
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.
2.5 3.6 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2023-5441

OS Trackers for CVE-2023-5441

vendor priority summary link
alpine medium CVE-2023-5441: 1 source package rows (vim); 171 state rows across 6 repos (3.17-main, 3.19-main, 3.20-main, 3.21-main, 3.22-main, edge-main); fixed 0, open 171. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2023-5441
debian unimportant CVE-2023-5441 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-2023-5441
redhat low https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-5441
suse medium https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-5441/
ubuntu medium CVE-2023-5441 medium 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-2023-5441

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-5441

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
vim vim < 9.0.1994 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-2023-5441

cvelogic Threat Intelligence