RCE in Vim

CVE-2026-43961

A flaw was found in Vim's netrw plugin. A crafted filename containing quote characters and expression fragments can break out of the quoted context during mark/unmark operations, allowing arbitrary Vimscript execution. This can be leveraged to run shell commands with the privileges of the user running Vim.

Vulnerability class: RCE (Remote Code Execution)

Published · last modified .

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: 0.002 (11.4th percentile), scored .

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 11th percentile — 11.4% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS trend (30 days)EPSS over the last 30 days for CVE-2026-43961: held from 0.002 to 0.002.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.002 · newest: 0.002 · change: +0.001

Affected products

Weakness classification (CWE)

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2026-43961?
CVE-2026-43961 is a high-severity vulnerability in Vim, classified under Code Injection. CVSS score: 7.8/10. Published 2026-08-19.
How severe is CVE-2026-43961?
High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.8 out of 10.