Crash via clipboard-register display redirection
Published Feb 18, 2025 · Updated Mar 7, 2025
Use-after-free in Vim before 9.1.1115 allows local users to crash the editor by redirecting displayed clipboard-register output. The ex_display function misses the + and * clipboard aliases when they fall back to register 0, so redirection frees that register before str_to_reg reads it. Exploitation requires a local user to explicitly run the unusual display-redirection command, and the demonstrated result is an AddressSanitizer abort.
Summary
What happened
Use-after-free in Vim before 9.1.1115 allows local users to crash the editor by redirecting displayed clipboard-register output. The ex_display function misses the + and * clipboard aliases when they fall back to register 0, so redirection frees that register before str_to_reg reads it. Exploitation requires a local user to explicitly run the unusual display-redirection command, and the demonstrated result is an AddressSanitizer abort.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2025-26603
- Published
- Feb 18, 2025
- Updated
- Mar 7, 2025
- Vendor
- Vim
- Product
- Vim
- Classifications
- CWE-416, T1204.002
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Feb 18, 2025CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Mar 7, 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=< 9.1.1115
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.
Public exploit references
- 25-2-9_HUAF1 Vim proof of conceptproof of concept · demonstrated
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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