What is CVE-2019-20079?

CVE-2019-20079 is a high-severity vulnerability in Vim, classified under Use After Free. CVSS score: 7.8/10. Published 2019-12-30.

How severe is CVE-2019-20079?

High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.8 out of 10.

Use After Free in Vim

CVE-2019-20079

The autocmd feature in window.c in Vim before 8.1.2136 accesses freed memory.

Vulnerability class: Use-After-Free

Published 2019-12-30 · last modified 2026-06-17.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 7.8 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.019 (79.0th percentile), scored 2026-09-29.

Low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, but still tracked. 79th percentile — 79.0% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.019 · newest: 0.019 · change: 0.000

Affected products

Vim
Canonical Ubuntu Linux — versions 12.04, 14.04, 16.04

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-416 — Use After Free

References

github.com/vim/vim/commit/ec66c41d84e574baf8009dbc0bd088d2bc5b2421 (Patch, Third Party Advisory)
packetstormsecurity.com/files/154898 (VDB Entry, Third Party Advisory)
github.com/vim/vim/compare/v8.1.2135...v8.1.2136 (Patch, Third Party Advisory)
usn.ubuntu.com/4309-1/ (vendor-advisory, Third Party Advisory)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2019-20079?: CVE-2019-20079 is a high-severity vulnerability in Vim, classified under Use After Free. CVSS score: 7.8/10. Published 2019-12-30.
How severe is CVE-2019-20079?: High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.8 out of 10.