What’s Vulnerable › Vulnerabilities

CVE-2026-43961: Vim: vimscript injection via unescaped filename in netrw s:netrwmarkfile() filter() expression allows arbitrary code execution

• Severity: high (CVSS 7.8 v3.1)
• Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
• EPSS: 0.2% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
• Public exploit or detection template: none known
• Published: 2026-08-19 · updated 2026-10-30
• Weakness: CWE-94

Description

A flaw was found in Vim's netrw plugin. A crafted filename containing quote characters and expression fragments can break out of the quoted context during mark/unmark operations, allowing arbitrary Vimscript execution. This can be leveraged to run shell commands with the privileges of the user running Vim.

Affected products

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10: all versions
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7: all versions
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8: all versions
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9: all versions
• Red Hat Hardened Images: all versions — fixed in 9.2.967-1.1.hum1
• vim/vim: before 9.2.0480 — fixed in 9.2.0480

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Red Hat Hardened Images 9.2.967-1.1.hum1; vim/vim 9.2.0480. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

• https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:57614
• https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-43961
• https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2460434
• https://github.com/vim/vim/security/advisories/GHSA-66hr-7p6x-x5j3
• http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2026/05/14/7

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