CVE-2026-28417
Published: 27 February 2026
Summary
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 Malicious Link (T1204.001); ranked at the 4.6th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified are NIST 800-53 SI-2 (Flaw Remediation) and AC-6 (Least Privilege).
Deeper analysis
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.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2026-9085
Vulnerability details
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 TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
OS command injection in Vim netrw allows arbitrary Unix shell execution (T1059.004) when a user is tricked into opening a crafted scp:// URL (T1204.001).
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Directly requires applying the vendor patch (v9.2.0073) that eliminates the netrw command-injection flaw before any crafted scp:// URL can be processed.
Least-functionality configuration can disable the netrw plugin or restrict allowed URL schemes, removing the attack surface that the CVE exploits.
Running Vim under least-privilege accounts limits the scope of arbitrary shell commands that can be executed via the vulnerable netrw handler.