CVE-2026-38972

Exp

Notepad3 through 6.25.822.1 contains a DLL search-order hijacking vulnerability in the About-dialog code path in src/Notepad3.c. The application calls LoadLibrary(L"MSFTEDIT.DLL") with a bare DLL name, which allows a local attacker to place a malicious MSFTEDIT.DLL in the application directory or another preferred DLL search location and achieve arbitrary code execution in the context of the user when the About dialog is opened.

Published: 2026-07-02 Last update: 2026-07-08 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Analyzed，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2026-38972 is rated Exploit Available (50/100): CVSS High severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.15%). 1 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). 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-2026-38972

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

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2026-38972

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 2026-07-07 0.18% 0.15% -0.03%
2 2026-07-03 — 0.18% —

Full EPSS history (2 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2026-38972

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.8 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/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: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:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big 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.
 1.8 5.9 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2026-38972

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2026-38972

GHSA-gmg7-w8wv-j7v2 · Severity: high — Notepad3 through 6.25.822.1 contains a DLL search-order hijacking vulnerability in the About...

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2026-38972

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
rizonesoft notepad3 <= 6.25.822.1 cpe:2.3:a:rizonesoft:notepad3:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2026-38972

cvelogic Threat Intelligence