Cyber Resilience

CVE-2026-32249

Memory Safety in Vim 9.1.0011 – 9.2.0137

Memory Safety
Published
12 March 2026
Modified
23 July 2026
Patch / advisory
View advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 5.3
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L
EPSS Score 0.0013 3th percentile
Risk Priority 35 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2026-32249 is a medium-severity NULL Pointer Dereference (CWE-476) vulnerability in Vim Vim. Its CVSS base score is 5.3 (Medium).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Application or System Exploitation (T1499.004); ranked at the 3th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SI-2 (Flaw Remediation) and CM-6 (Configuration Settings) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

A10:2025 Mishandling of Exceptional Conditions

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

Vim is an open source, command line text editor. From 9.1.0011 to before 9.2.0137, Vim's NFA regex compiler, when encountering a collection containing a combining character as the endpoint of a character range (e.g. [0-0\u05bb]), incorrectly emits the composing bytes…

more

of that character as separate NFA states. This corrupts the NFA postfix stack, resulting in NFA_START_COLL having a NULL out1 pointer. When nfa_max_width() subsequently traverses the compiled NFA to estimate match width for the look-behind assertion, it dereferences state->out1->out without a NULL check, causing a segmentation fault. This vulnerability is fixed in 9.2.0137.

CWE(s)
CWE-476

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI

T1499.004 Application or System Exploitation Impact
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities that can cause an application or system to crash and deny availability to users.
attack.mitre.org →
Why these techniques?

NULL dereference in regex engine leads to application crash, enabling Endpoint DoS via application exploitation.

Confidence: HIGH · MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise v19.0

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2026-55892Same product: Vim Vim
CVE-2026-52859Same product: Vim Vim
CVE-2026-57452Same product: Vim Vim
CVE-2023-1355Same product: Vim Vim
CVE-2023-46246Same product: Vim Vim
CVE-2023-2610Same product: Vim Vim
CVE-2023-2426Same product: Vim Vim
CVE-2023-1170Same product: Vim Vim
CVE-2023-0288Same product: Vim Vim
CVE-2026-28418Same product: Vim Vim

Affected Assets

vim
vim
9.1.0011 — 9.2.0137

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)
  • SI-2 Flaw Remediation
  • CM-6 Configuration Settings
  • SI-16 Memory Protection
Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

—

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)

—

Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)

—

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

SI-2 Flaw Remediation good match
prevent

Directly requires applying the vendor patch that corrects the NFA compiler NULL dereference in CVE-2026-32249.

CM-6 Configuration Settings partial match
prevent

Enforces configuration baselines that include only patched Vim versions, blocking use of the vulnerable 9.1.0011-9.2.0136 range.

SI-16 Memory Protection minimal match
prevent

Memory-protection mechanisms can contain the impact of the NULL-pointer dereference and reduce the chance of successful denial-of-service.

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.

PR.PS-06 mostly match
prevents

Secure SDLC practices (static analysis, code review, safe coding standards) directly prevent NULL dereference bugs during development.

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.

A.8.29 Security testing in development and acceptance mostly match
detects

Security testing can detect NULL dereference defects before release.

A.8.25 Secure development life cycle partial match
prevents

Secure SDLC mandates defensive coding practices that can prevent NULL dereferences.

A.8.26 Application security requirements partial match
prevents

Application security requirements can specify input validation and pointer-safety rules.

A.8.27 Secure system architecture and engineering principles partial match
prevents

Secure architecture principles encourage defensive design that avoids unsafe pointer use.

A.8.28 Secure coding partial match
prevents

Secure coding standards directly require NULL-pointer checks and safe dereference patterns.

References