Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:NSummary
CVE-2026-28417 is a medium-severity Improper Neutralization of Invalid Characters in Identifiers in Web Pages (CWE-86) vulnerability in Vim Vim. Its CVSS base score is 4.4 (Medium).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Command and Scripting Interpreter (T1059); ranked in the top 36% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SA-11 (Developer Testing and Evaluation) and SI-10 (Information Input Validation) — see the control section below for these in your framework.
Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary
Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.
CVE-2026-28417 is an OS command injection vulnerability in the netrw standard plugin bundled with Vim, an open source command-line text editor. The flaw affects Vim versions prior to 9.2.0073 and is classified under CWE-86 (Improper Neutralization of Invalid Characters in Identifiers in Web Pages) and CWE-78 (Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an OS Command). It carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 4.4 (AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N), indicating a moderate severity with local access, low attack complexity, no privileges required, user interaction needed, and limited impact on confidentiality and integrity.
An attacker can exploit this vulnerability by inducing a victim to open a crafted URL within Vim, such as one using the scp:// protocol handler. This social engineering tactic tricks Vim's netrw plugin into processing the malicious URL, allowing the execution of arbitrary shell commands with the privileges of the running Vim process. Exploitation requires local access to the system and user interaction, but no prior privileges, making it feasible in scenarios where users routinely open untrusted files or URLs in Vim.
Vim version 9.2.0073 addresses the issue with a targeted fix, as detailed in the upstream commit at https://github.com/vim/vim/commit/79348dbbc09332130f4c860 and the release notes at https://github.com/vim/vim/releases/tag/v9.2.0073. The GitHub security advisory (https://github.com/vim/vim/security/advisories/GHSA-m3xh-9434-g336) and an oss-security mailing list post (http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2026/02/27/6) confirm the patch and recommend immediate upgrading to mitigate the command injection risk.
OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2026-9085
Vulnerability Data
Vim is an open source, command line text editor. Prior to version 9.2.0073, an OS command injection vulnerability exists in the `netrw` standard plugin bundled with Vim. By inducing a user to open a crafted URL (e.g., using the `scp://`…
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protocol handler), an attacker can execute arbitrary shell commands with the privileges of the Vim process. Version 9.2.0073 fixes the issue.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Control response
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V1.2.5V1.2.8V15.2.5
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Developer testing and evaluation can discover missing or incorrect command sanitization during development.
Input validation directly neutralizes or rejects special characters that would otherwise alter OS command structure.
Least privilege reduces the permissions available to any process that could be subverted by injected commands.
Least functionality restricts available OS commands and interpreters, limiting the blast radius of injection.
Secure engineering principles require proper neutralization of untrusted input before command construction.
Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI
Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.
Secure SDLC practices directly require proper input neutralization and validation to prevent identifier-handling flaws.
Routine patching/maintenance can remediate known command-injection CVEs in dependencies (partial forward) but does nothing to stop developers from introducing improper neutralization in custom code (none reverse).
Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI
Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.
Security testing can detect the weakness but does not itself implement the neutralization controls.
Secure development life cycle mandates input validation and sanitization that directly prevents improper neutralization of invalid characters in identifiers.
Application security requirements explicitly call for validation of all inputs including identifiers, mitigating this weakness.
Secure coding standards require proper neutralization of invalid characters in tag names, URIs and identifiers, directly addressing CWE-86.