Vim up to 9.1.1163 Tar command injection

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability classified as critical has been found in Vim up to 9.1.1163. This impacts an unknown function of the component Tar Handler. Performing a manipulation results in command injection. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2025-27423. Remote exploitation of the attack is possible. No exploit is available. It is recommended to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability classified as critical has been found in Vim up to 9.1.1163. This affects some unknown processing of the component Tar Handler. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a command injection vulnerability. CWE is classifying the issue as CWE-77. The product constructs all or part of a command using externally-influenced input from an upstream component, but it does not neutralize or incorrectly neutralizes special elements that could modify the intended command when it is sent to a downstream component. This is going to have an impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

Vim is an open source, command line text editor. Vim is distributed with the tar.vim plugin, that allows easy editing and viewing of (compressed or uncompressed) tar files. Starting with 9.1.0858, the tar.vim plugin uses the ":read" ex command line to append below the cursor position, however the is not sanitized and is taken literally from the tar archive. This allows to execute shell commands via special crafted tar archives. Whether this really happens, depends on the shell being used ('shell' option, which is set using $SHELL). The issue has been fixed as of Vim patch v9.1.1164

It is possible to read the advisory at github.com. This vulnerability is uniquely identified as CVE-2025-27423 since 02/24/2025. The exploitability is told to be easy. It is possible to initiate the attack remotely. No form of authentication is needed for exploitation. 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 attack technique deployed by this issue is T1202 according to MITRE ATT&CK.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 232133 (Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2025-27423), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 9.1.1164 eliminates this vulnerability.

The vulnerability is also documented in the vulnerability database at Tenable (232133). Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.

Productinfo

Type

• Word Processing Software

Name

• Vim

Version

• 9.1.1163

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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