CVE-2026-25749 | Heap Overflow in Vim

Exp

Vim is an open source, command line text editor. Prior to version 9.1.2132, a heap buffer overflow vulnerability exists in Vim's tag file resolution logic when processing the 'helpfile' option. The vulnerability is located in the get_tagfname() function in src/tag.c. When processing help file tags, Vim copies the user-controlled 'helpfile' option value into a fixed-size heap buffer of MAXPATHL + 1 bytes (typically 4097 bytes) using an unsafe STRCPY() operation without any bounds checking. This issue has been patched in version 9.1.2132.

Published: 2026-02-06 Last update: 2026-06-17 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2026-25749 is rated Exploit Available (50/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.21%). 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-2026-25749

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

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2026-25749

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 0.01% 0.21% +0.20%
2 2026-02-07 0.01%

Full EPSS history (2 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2026-25749

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
6.6 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/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: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:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
1.3 5.2 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2026-25749

OS Trackers for CVE-2026-25749

vendor priority summary link
alpine CVE-2026-25749: 1 source package rows (vim); 311 state rows across 7 repos (3.19-main, 3.20-main, 3.21-main, 3.22-main, 3.23-main, edge-community, edge-main); fixed 2, open 309. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2026-25749
debian not yet assigned CVE-2026-25749 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (vim), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): open 3, resolved 2. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2026-25749
redhat medium https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-25749
suse medium CVE-2026-25749 severity moderate: SUSE including 15 source package names (gvim, vim, …), 55 product×package rows across 13 product lines (SUSE Liberty Linux 8, SUSE Liberty Linux 9, … (13 product lines)): Known Not Affected 45, Fixed 10. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-25749/
ubuntu low CVE-2026-25749 low priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (vim), 8 status rows across 8 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, noble, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): released 8. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2026-25749

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2026-25749

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
neovim neovim <= 0.11.6 cpe:2.3:a:neovim:neovim:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
vim vim < 9.1.2132 cpe:2.3:a:vim:vim:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2026-25749

cvelogic Threat Intelligence