CVE-2022-2124 in vim
Summary
by MITRE • 06/19/2022
Buffer Over-read in GitHub repository vim/vim prior to 8.2.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 05/24/2026
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2022-2124 represents a critical buffer over-read flaw discovered in the popular vim text editor repository maintained by GitHub. This issue affects versions of vim prior to 8.2, making it a significant concern for users who have not updated their installations. The vulnerability stems from improper handling of memory boundaries during specific text processing operations, creating a scenario where the application reads data beyond the allocated buffer space. Such over-read conditions can lead to unpredictable behavior, application crashes, or potentially exploitable states that adversaries might leverage for malicious purposes.
The technical implementation of this buffer over-read occurs within vim's internal text processing mechanisms, specifically when handling certain input sequences or file formats that trigger memory access patterns beyond expected boundaries. This flaw manifests as a direct violation of memory safety principles, where the software attempts to read memory locations that have not been properly allocated or validated for the current operation. The vulnerability is classified under CWE-125 as an out-of-bounds read, which is a well-documented weakness in software security that has been consistently flagged as a high-risk issue in multiple security frameworks and assessments.
Operationally, the impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple application instability to potentially enable more sophisticated attack vectors. An attacker who can control the input to vim could theoretically trigger the over-read condition to access sensitive memory regions, potentially extracting information from adjacent memory locations or causing the application to crash in a manner that could be exploited for denial of service attacks. The nature of vim as a widely deployed text editor across various operating systems and environments means that this vulnerability could affect numerous users and systems, particularly those running older versions that have not received the necessary security patches.
The remediation for this vulnerability requires immediate application of the security patch released by the vim development team, which addresses the buffer over-read condition through proper bounds checking and memory management. Organizations should prioritize updating their vim installations to version 8.2 or later, as this update contains the necessary fixes to prevent the over-read scenario from occurring. Additionally, system administrators should implement comprehensive patch management processes to ensure that all instances of vim across their environments are updated promptly. Security monitoring should also be enhanced to detect any suspicious usage patterns that might indicate exploitation attempts, while network segmentation and access controls can provide additional defense-in-depth measures against potential attackers targeting this vulnerability. The ATT&CK framework would categorize this vulnerability under the T1059.007 technique for command and scripting interpreter, as exploitation might involve crafting input that triggers the vulnerable code path, and T1499.004 for network denial of service, as the over-read could lead to system instability and service disruption.