CVE-2026-39881
Description
A flaw was found in Vim. A command injection vulnerability in Vim's NetBeans interface allows a malicious NetBeans server to execute arbitrary Ex commands when Vim connects to it. This occurs due to unsanitized strings in the defineAnnoType and specialKeys protocol messages, leading to arbitrary code execution.
Statement
A command injection flaw in Vim's NetBeans interface allows a malicious NetBeans server to execute arbitrary commands when Vim connects to it. This happens because of Vim lacking the sanitization of strings in the protocol command messages, an attacker may leverage that to send maliciously crafted messages to the client that send a | character in certain command fields making Vim further interpret as an Ex command interpolation and executing arbitrary code in the victim's machine.
Red Hat Product Security has rated this vulnerability as having the impact of Moderate, this happens because for an attack be considered successful the victim needs to deliberately connect to an untrusted malicious Netbeans server or the attacker needs to intercept the control messages and properly change it (MiTM) with the malicious payload. Additionally the code executed will be executed with the same privileges as the user running the Vim process, meaning the impact will be restricted by the same privilege level as the edit process has.
Mitigation
Users should refrain to connect to untrusted netbeans server.
Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) Score Details
Info alert:Important note
CVSS scores for open source components depend on vendor-specific factors (e.g. version or build chain). Therefore, Red Hat's score and impact rating can be different from NVD and other vendors. Red Hat remains the authoritative CVE Naming Authority (CNA) source for its products and services (see Red Hat classifications).
The following CVSS metrics and score provided are preliminary and subject to review.
CVSS v3 Score Breakdown
| Red Hat | NVD | cve.org | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base Score | 5 | 7.8 | 5 |
| Attack Vector | Local | Local | Local |
| Attack Complexity | High | Low | High |
| Privileges Required | Low | None | Low |
| User Interaction | Required | Required | Required |
| Scope | Unchanged | Unchanged | Unchanged |
| Confidentiality | Low | High | Low |
| Integrity Impact | High | High | High |
| Availability Impact | None | High | None |
Vector
Red Hat: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:H/A:N
NVD: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
cve.org: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:H/A:N
Understanding the Weakness (CWE)
Confidentiality,Integrity,Availability,Non-Repudiation
Technical Impact: Execute Unauthorized Code or Commands; DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart; Read Files or Directories; Modify Files or Directories; Read Application Data; Modify Application Data; Hide Activities
Attackers could execute unauthorized operating system commands, which could then be used to disable the product, or read and modify data for which the attacker does not have permissions to access directly. Since the targeted application is directly executing the commands instead of the attacker, any malicious activities may appear to come from the application or the application's owner.
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