vim up to 9.1.1550 ZIP path traversal

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, has been found in vim up to 9.1.1550. Impacted is an unknown function of the component ZIP Handler. The manipulation leads to path traversal. This vulnerability is documented as CVE-2025-53906. The attack can be initiated remotely. There is not any exploit available. It is advisable to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, has been found in vim up to 9.1.1550. This issue affects an unknown functionality of the component ZIP Handler. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a path traversal vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-22. The product uses external input to construct a pathname that is intended to identify a file or directory that is located underneath a restricted parent directory, but the product does not properly neutralize special elements within the pathname that can cause the pathname to resolve to a location that is outside of the restricted directory. Impacted is confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

Vim is an open source, command line text editor. Prior to version 9.1.1551, a path traversal issue in Vim’s zip.vim plugin can allow overwriting of arbitrary files when opening specially crafted zip archives. Impact is low because this exploit requires direct user interaction. However, successfully exploitation can lead to overwriting sensitive files or placing executable code in privileged locations, depending on the permissions of the process editing the archive. The victim must edit such a file using Vim which will reveal the filename and the file content, a careful user may suspect some strange things going on. Successful exploitation could results in the ability to execute arbitrary commands on the underlying operating system. Version 9.1.1551 contains a patch for the vulnerability.

The advisory is shared at github.com. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2025-53906 since 07/11/2025. The exploitation is known to be difficult. The attack may be initiated remotely. No form of authentication is needed for a successful exploitation. It demands that the victim is doing some kind of user interaction. Neither technical details nor an exploit are publicly available. MITRE ATT&CK project uses the attack technique T1006 for this issue.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 242211 (Fedora 42 : vim (2025-9395406660)), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 9.1.1551 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 586294a04179d855c3d1d4ee5ea83931963680b8 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 databases at Tenable (242211) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2025-1575). If you want to get the best quality for vulnerability data then you always have to consider VulDB.

Affected

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• Fedora Linux
• Ubuntu Linux
• SUSE Linux
• Oracle Linux
• Gentoo Linux
• RESF Rocky Linux
• Open Source vim
• Dell Secure Connect Gateway

Productinfo

Type

• Word Processing Software

Name

• vim

Version

• 9.1.1550

License

• open-source

Website

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

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CPE 2.2info

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