Cyber Resilience

CVE-2026-73078

RCE in Vim ≤ 9.2.0840

Published
11 August 2026
Modified
06 October 2026
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v4 8.6
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:A/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X
EPSS Score 0.0034 25th percentile
Risk Priority 55 floored blend · peak EPSS

CVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.

Summary

CVE-2026-73078 is a high-severity Command Injection (CWE-77) vulnerability in Vim Vim. Its CVSS base score is 8.6 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked at the 25th 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 SA-11 (Developer Testing and Evaluation) and SI-10 (Information Input Validation) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

Vim is an open source, command line text editor. Prior to 9.2.0840, runtime/plugin/netrwPlugin.vim loads netrw and runtime/pack/dist/opt/netrw/autoload/netrw.vim constructs Bookmarks, History, and Targets menu entries by interpolating attacker-controlled directory paths into executed :menu commands. s:NetrwBookmarkMenu(), s:NetrwTgtMenu(), g:netrw_menu_escape, EX_TRLBAR, and netrw#MakeTgt() fail…

more

to neutralize the | command separator or single quotes at five construction sites, allowing a crafted path browsed or bookmarked in GUI Vim to execute arbitrary Ex and operating-system commands. This issue is fixed in version 9.2.0840.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application Initial Access
Adversaries may attempt to exploit a weakness in an Internet-facing host or system to initially access a network.
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2026-54090Shared CWE-184, CWE-77
CVE-2023-3374Shared CWE-184
CVE-2025-61924Shared CWE-184
CVE-2026-72779Shared CWE-184
CVE-2026-62199Shared CWE-184
CVE-2025-1484Shared CWE-184
CVE-2024-30103Shared CWE-184
CVE-2026-44115Shared CWE-184
CVE-2026-79696Shared CWE-184
CVE-2026-42590Shared CWE-184

Affected Assets

vim
vim
≤ 9.2.0840

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

—

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

—

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)
  • 2 hardening rules · 1 OS baseline
Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V3.5.2
  • V4.4.2
  • V16.2.5
  • V1.2.3

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

Developer testing and evaluation can discover command-construction flaws before deployment.

Input validation directly stops construction of commands from untrusted data containing special elements.

Secure engineering principles include proper neutralization and safe command construction practices.

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.

DE.CM-09 partial match
prevents

Runtime monitoring of software and data can detect anomalous command execution resulting from injection.

ID.RA-01 partial match
prevents

Identifying recorded vulnerabilities enables remediation of command-injection flaws before exploitation.

PR.PS-06 partial match
prevents

Secure SDLC practices directly require input validation and neutralization that prevent command injection.

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.

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References