vim up to 9.0.2120 s Command use after free

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability classified as critical has been found in vim up to 9.0.2120. This impacts an unknown function of the component s Command Handler. The manipulation leads to use after free. This vulnerability is referenced as CVE-2023-48706. Remote exploitation of the attack is possible. No exploit is available. It is recommended to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, has been found in vim up to 9.0.2120 (Word Processing Software). This issue affects some unknown processing of the component s Command Handler. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a use after free vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-416. Referencing memory after it has been freed can cause a program to crash, use unexpected values, or execute code. Impacted is confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

Vim is a UNIX editor that, prior to version 9.0.2121, has a heap-use-after-free vulnerability. When executing a `:s` command for the very first time and using a sub-replace-special atom inside the substitution part, it is possible that the recursive `:s` call causes free-ing of memory which may later then be accessed by the initial `:s` command. The user must intentionally execute the payload and the whole process is a bit tricky to do since it seems to work only reliably for the very first :s command. It may also cause a crash of Vim. Version 9.0.2121 contains a fix for this issue.

The weakness was published 11/23/2023 as GHSA-c8qm-x72m-q53q. It is possible to read the advisory at github.com. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2023-48706 since 11/17/2023. It demands that the victim is doing some kind of user interaction. The technical details are unknown and an exploit is not publicly available.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 238005 (NewStart CGSL MAIN 7.02 : vim Multiple Vulnerabilities (NS-SA-2025-0081)), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 9.0.2121 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 26c11c56888d01e298cd8044caf860f3c26f57bb is able to eliminate this problem. The bugfix is ready for download at github.com. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version.

The vulnerability is also documented in the vulnerability database at Tenable (238005). Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.

Productinfo

Type

• Word Processing Software

Name

• vim

Version

• 9.0.2120

License

• open-source

Website

• Product: https://github.com/vim/vim/

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Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.

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