{"id":8926,"date":"2025-12-04T10:00:52","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T10:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/serisec.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/04\/vim-for-windows-vulnerability-let-attackers-execute-arbitrary-code\/"},"modified":"2025-12-04T10:00:52","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T10:00:52","slug":"vim-for-windows-vulnerability-let-attackers-execute-arbitrary-code","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/serisec.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/04\/vim-for-windows-vulnerability-let-attackers-execute-arbitrary-code\/","title":{"rendered":"Vim for Windows Vulnerability Let Attackers Execute Arbitrary Code"},"content":{"rendered":"

Vim for Windows Vulnerability Let Attackers Execute Arbitrary Code
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A critical security vulnerability has been discovered in Vim for Windows that could allow attackers to execute malicious code on users\u2019 computers.<\/p>\n

The vulnerability, identified as CVE-2025-66476, affects Vim versions before 9.1.1947 and has been rated high severity, with a CVSS score of 7.8.<\/p>\n

The flaw lies in how Vim searches for external programs on Windows systems<\/a>. When users run commands in Vim, like: grep or: make.<\/p>\n

Overview of the Windows-Specific Vim Vulnerability<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The text editor searches for required executables in the current working directory before checking system directories. This order of operations creates a dangerous opportunity for attackers to inject malicious files.<\/a><\/p>\n

An attacker can put a fake malicious file with a common name, like findstr.exe, inside the project folder.<\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Attribute<\/strong>\n<\/th>\nDetails<\/strong><\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
CVE ID<\/strong><\/td>\nCVE-2025-66476<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Package<\/strong><\/td>\nVim for Windows<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Vulnerability Type<\/strong><\/td>\nUncontrolled Search Path Element (CWE-427)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Severity<\/strong><\/td>\nHigh<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
CVSS Score<\/strong><\/td>\n7.8<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
CVSS Vector<\/strong><\/td>\nAV:L\/AC:L\/PR:N\/UI:R\/S:U\/C:H\/I:H\/A:H<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/figure>\n

When a user opens a file from that folder and executes a grep command, Vim runs the attacker\u2019s malicious version instead of the legitimate Windows system file.<\/p>\n

This allows the attacker to execute arbitrary code with the same privileges as the user running Vim. The vulnerability becomes particularly dangerous in common development scenarios.<\/p>\n

For example, when a developer clones a malicious repository and opens files using Vim, they could unknowingly trigger the attack.<\/p>\n

Simply performing routine tasks like searching through code with: grep, filtering text with! Running build tools, such as make, could activate the malicious payload.<\/p>\n

Users don\u2019t need elevated permissions for this attack to succeed, and the vulnerability can be triggered whenever Vim uses external commands. The attacker needs only user-level privileges<\/a> to plant malicious files in a directory.<\/p>\n

According to an advisory published on GitHub<\/a>, all Windows users running Vim version 9.1.1946 or earlier are vulnerable. This includes users of both Vim and gVim.<\/p>\n

Vim released patch version 9.1.1947 to fix this vulnerability. Users should immediately update to this version or later.<\/p>\n

The patch changes how Vim searches for external executables, preventing it from prioritizing files in the current working directory.<\/p>\n

Users should immediately update Vim for Windows to version 9.1.1947 or later to protect themselves against potential code-execution<\/a> attacks.<\/p>\n

This vulnerability highlights the importance of keeping development tools up to date and being cautious when opening files from untrusted sources.<\/p>\n

Follow us on Google News<\/a>, LinkedIn<\/a>, and X<\/a> for daily cybersecurity updates. Contact us<\/a> to feature your stories.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Vim for Windows Vulnerability Let Attackers Execute Arbitrary Code<\/a> appeared first on Cyber Security News<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Vim for Windows Vulnerability Let Attackers Execute Arbitrary Code A critical security vulnerability has been discovered in Vim for Windows that could allow attackers to execute malicious code on users\u2019 computers. The vulnerability, identified as CVE-2025-66476, affects Vim versions before 9.1.1947 and has been rated high severity, with a CVSS score of 7.8. The flaw […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[129,63,131,648,395],"tags":[130],"class_list":["post-8926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cyber-security","category-cyber-security-news","category-vulnerability","category-vulnerability-news","category-windows","tag-cyber-security-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/serisec.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8926"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/serisec.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/serisec.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/serisec.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/serisec.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/serisec.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8926\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/serisec.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/serisec.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/serisec.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}