What’s Vulnerable › Vulnerabilities

CVE-2026-25926: Notepad++ has an Untrusted Search Path

• Severity: high (CVSS 7.3 v3.1)
• Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
• EPSS: 0.3% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
• Public exploit or detection template: yes
• Published: 2026-02-19 · updated 2026-06-17
• Weakness: CWE-426

Description

Notepad++ is a free and open-source source code editor. An Unsafe Search Path vulnerability (CWE-426) exists in versions prior to 8.9.2 when launching Windows Explorer without an absolute executable path. This may allow execution of a malicious explorer.exe if an attacker can control the process working directory. Under certain conditions, this could lead to arbitrary code execution in the context of the running application. Version 8.9.2 patches the issue.

Affected products

• Notepad++: before 8.9.2 — fixed in 8.9.2

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Notepad++ 8.9.2. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

• https://github.com/notepad-plus-plus/notepad-plus-plus/releases/tag/v8.9.2
• https://github.com/notepad-plus-plus/notepad-plus-plus/security/advisories/GHSA-rjvm-fcxw-2jxq
• https://notepad-plus-plus.org/news/v892-released

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