Editor crash via undersized bracketed-paste allocation
Published Jan 28, 2022 · Updated Nov 3, 2025
Heap-based buffer overflow in Vim before 8.2 allows local users to crash the editor by pasting crafted text in Ex mode. The bracketed_paste function in src/edit.c reserves capacity for the pasted bytes but appends a terminating NUL without reserving the extra byte. Exploitation requires user interaction with bracketed paste in Ex mode and causes a one-byte heap write that can crash Vim or corrupt its process memory.
Summary
What happened
Heap-based buffer overflow in Vim before 8.2 allows local users to crash the editor by pasting crafted text in Ex mode. The bracketed_paste function in src/edit.c reserves capacity for the pasted bytes but appends a terminating NUL without reserving the extra byte. Exploitation requires user interaction with bracketed paste in Ex mode and causes a one-byte heap write that can crash Vim or corrupt its process memory.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2022-0392
- Published
- Jan 28, 2022
- Updated
- Nov 3, 2025
- Vendor
- Vim
- Product
- Vim
- Classifications
- CWE-787, CWE-122, T1203
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- unauthenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Jan 28, 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 bracketed-paste proof of conceptproof of concept · demonstrated
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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