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No exploitation reportedFix available

CVE-2026-52859

Vim: Out-of-bounds Read in Terminal Screen Snapshot

No exploitation reported by the sources we read.

  • Published2026-06-11
  • Fixed in9.2.0565
  • WeaknessCWE-125

Am I affected?

With a domain, we read the version its public headers and pages expose. A distribution build can carry the fix under an older number.

Description

Vim is an open source, command line text editor. Prior to version 9.2.0565, the update_snapshot() function in src/terminal.c copies the visible terminal screen into the scrollback buffer when a snapshot is taken. For each screen cell it walks the cell's chars[] array with no upper bound, stopping only when it encounters a NUL terminator. When a cell legitimately fills all VTERM_MAX_CHARS_PER_CELL (6) slots — a base character plus five combining marks — the bundled libvterm returns the array without a terminating NUL, so the loop reads past the fixed six-element array and appends the out-of-bounds values to a buffer reserved for only six characters. A program whose output is rendered inside a :terminal window can trigger this with a short byte sequence and no Vim scripting, leading to a crash. This issue has been patched in version 9.2.0565.

Timeline

dates in UTC
  1. 2026-06-1119:16CVE publishedNVD

Observed activity

isMalicious corpus · updated 2026-10-23 18:48 UTC
Indicators tagged with this CVE, per day0 indicators over 7 days
Block these indicators
  • Firewall list (EDL, text): https://api.ismalicious.com/edl/cve/CVE-2026-52859?format=txt
  • CSV export: https://api.ismalicious.com/edl/cve/CVE-2026-52859?format=csv
  • TAXII collection of exploited CVEs
  • The EDL and CSV take an API key on the Pro plan.

Versions per branch

NVD
Vim
BranchAffectedFixed in
9.2< 9.2.05659.2.0565

as publishedRanges as NVD and OSV publish them; a distribution’s build can be fixed under an older number.

Distribution builds and vendor advisories

Packages from OSV.dev and products from the vendors' CSAF advisories.

version not verifiedVersions not verified: read as OSV.dev and the vendors publish them, not checked against each vendor's release list.

Packages

  • vim-X11AlmaLinux:9all versions · fixed in 2:8.2.2637-26.el9_8.21and 4 other packages
  • vim-X11AlmaLinux:8all versions · fixed in 2:8.0.1763-31.el8_10.7and 4 other packages
  • xxdAlmaLinux:10all versions · fixed in 2:9.1.083-9.el10_2.20and 6 other packages

Vendor advisories

  • CVE-2026-52859 Red Hat Product Security49 products fixed · 14 known affected

    vim: Vim: Denial of Service via out-of-bounds write in terminal handling

    vim-X11 as a component of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 · vim-common as a component of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 · vim-enhanced as a component of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 · +11 more

  • RHSA-2026:71603 Red Hat Product Security1 product fixed

    Red Hat Security Advisory: Red Hat Update Infrastructure 5.3 security update

  • RHSA-2026:67956 Red Hat Product Security4 products fixed

    Red Hat Security Advisory: Red Hat Update Infrastructure 5.3 security update

  • RHSA-2026:66366 Red Hat Product Security9 products fixed

    Red Hat Security Advisory: vim security update

  • RHSA-2026:66348 Red Hat Product Security9 products fixed

    Red Hat Security Advisory: vim security update

  • RHSA-2026:66336 Red Hat Product Security9 products fixed

    Red Hat Security Advisory: vim security update

1 more advisory

Full record on NVD

Fix

  1. Update Vim to 9.2.0565
  2. Vendor fix Red Hat Product Security RHSA-2026:71603 · 1 productThe container images provided by this release, apart from the installer, should be deployed using rhui-installer utility. See the official documentation for more details.
  3. Vendor fix Red Hat Product Security RHSA-2026:66366 · 9 productsFor details on how to apply this update, which includes the changes described in this advisory, refer to: https://access.redhat.com/articles/11258
  4. Vendor fix Red Hat Product Security RHSA-2026:57614 · 17 productsFor details on how to apply this update, which includes the changes described in this advisory, refer to: https://images.redhat.com/
  5. Workaround from the vendor Red Hat Product Security RHSA-2026:71603 · 5 productsUsers should exercise caution when opening untrusted files or executing untrusted programs within vim's `:terminal` window. Avoiding interaction with untrusted content in this context can prevent the exploitation of this vulnerability, which leads to a denial of service.
  6. No fix available, says the vendor Red Hat Product Security CVE-2026-52859 · 2 productsFix deferred
  7. No fix planned, says the vendor Red Hat Product Security CVE-2026-52859 · 12 productsOut of support scope

Advisories and patches

Detection

Nuclei template
none so far
ProjectDiscovery
Exploit-DB
no entry
Exploit-DB
Proof-of-concept repositories
none listed
PoC-in-GitHub

Sources

Technical details

CVSS v3 Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:H
CVSS 4.0 vector
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:L/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X
Published
2026-06-11
Last Modified
2026-06-17
NVD status
Analyzed
MSRC Title
Vim: Out-of-bounds Read in Terminal Screen Snapshot

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2026-52859?

Vim is an open source, command line text editor. Prior to version 9.2.0565, the update_snapshot() function in src/terminal.c copies the visible terminal screen into the scrollback buffer when a snapshot is taken. For each screen cell it walks the cell's chars[] array with no upper bound, stopping only when it encounters a NUL terminator. When a cell legitimately fills all VTERM_MAX_CHARS_PER_CELL (6) slots — a base character plus five combining marks — the bundled libvterm returns the array without a terminating NUL, so the loop reads past the fixed six-element array and appends the out-of-bounds values to a buffer reserved for only six characters. A program whose output is rendered inside a :terminal window can trigger this with a short byte sequence and no Vim scripting, leading to a crash. This issue has been patched in version 9.2.0565.

Is CVE-2026-52859 actively exploited?

Active exploitation of CVE-2026-52859 has not been confirmed. Its EPSS score was 0.3% on 2026-10-22, the estimated probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.

What is the CVSS score for CVE-2026-52859?

CVE-2026-52859 has a CVSS v3 base score of 8.2 (HIGH severity), with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:H.

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