Process crash via unbounded expression recursion
Published Jan 25, 2022 · Updated Nov 3, 2025
Out-of-bounds memory access in Vim before 8.2 allows local users to crash the editor by evaluating a deeply nested expression. The eval7 parser recursively handles each opening parenthesis without a depth limit, exhausting the process stack before parsing completes. Exploitation requires a local user to make the affected editor evaluate a condition containing thousands of nested parentheses; the grounded consequence is a process crash.
Summary
What happened
Out-of-bounds memory access in Vim before 8.2 allows local users to crash the editor by evaluating a deeply nested expression. The eval7 parser recursively handles each opening parenthesis without a depth limit, exhausting the process stack before parsing completes. Exploitation requires a local user to make the affected editor evaluate a condition containing thousands of nested parentheses; the grounded consequence is a process crash.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2022-0351
- Published
- Jan 25, 2022
- Updated
- Nov 3, 2025
- Vendor
- Vim
- Product
- Vim
- Classifications
- CWE-119, CWE-786, T1499
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- unauthenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Jan 25, 2022CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Nov 3, 2025Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=unspecified <8.2
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
- huntr.dev deeply nested condition proof of conceptproof of concept · unverified
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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