CVE-2026-46483 | Vim: Command injection in tar#Vimuntar via missing shellescape {special} flag

Vim is an open source, command line text editor. Prior to 9.2.0479, a command injection vulnerability exists in tar#Vimuntar() in runtime/autoload/tar.vim when decompressing .tgz archives on Unix-like systems. The function builds :!gunzip and :!gzip -d commands using shellescape(tartail) without the {special} flag, allowing a crafted archive filename to trigger Vim cmdline-special expansion and execute shell commands in the user's context. This vulnerability is fixed in 9.2.0479.

Published: 2026-05-15 Last update: 2026-05-19 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Analyzed，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2026-46483 is rated Low Risk (16/100): CVSS Low severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.02%). Low composite risk—no urgent action required; patch on your normal maintenance cycle and revisit priority if CVSS or EPSS increases.

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-2026-46483

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 2026-05-19 0.24% 0.02% -0.22%
2 2026-05-16 — 0.24% —

Full EPSS history (2 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2026-46483

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
3.6 3.1 LOW
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N 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:H)
Even with access, the exploit needs extra luck, timing, or a fussy environment to actually work.
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:L)
Some sensitive info could get out, but not a total data dump.
Integrity (I:L)
Attackers could change some data, but it’s limited—not everything goes.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 1.0 2.5 [email protected]
7.0 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/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:H)
Even with access, the exploit needs extra luck, timing, or a fussy environment to actually work.
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.
 1.0 5.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2026-46483

OS Trackers for CVE-2026-46483

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2026-46483 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-2026-46483
suse high — https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-46483/
ubuntu medium CVE-2026-46483 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (vim), 9 status rows across 9 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, noble, questing, resolute, trusty, upstream, xenial): needs-triage 9. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2026-46483

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2026-46483

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
vim vim < 9.2.0479 cpe:2.3:a:vim:vim:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2026-46483

cvelogic Threat Intelligence