Denial of service in Vim

1) NULL pointer dereference

EUVDB-ID: #VU62876

Risk: Low

CVSSv3.1: 3.8 [CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L/E:U/RL:O/RC:C]

CVE-ID: CVE-2022-1620

CWE-ID: CWE-476 - NULL Pointer Dereference

Exploit availability: No

Description

The vulnerability allows a remote attacker to perform a denial of service (DoS) attack.

The vulnerability exists due to a NULL pointer dereference error within the vim_regexec_string() function in regexp.c. A remote attacker can trick the victim to open a specially crafted file, trigger NULL pointer dereference error and crash the application.

Mitigation

Install update from vendor's website.

Vulnerable software versions

Vim: 8.2.4800 - 8.2.4899

External links

http://huntr.dev/bounties/7a4c59f3-fcc0-4496-995d-5ca6acd2da51
http://github.com/vim/vim/commit/8e4b76da1d7e987d43ca960dfbc372d1c617466f

Q & A

Can this vulnerability be exploited remotely?

Yes. This vulnerability can be exploited by a remote non-authenticated attacker via the Internet.

How the attacker can exploit this vulnerability?

The attacker would have to trick the victim to visit a specially crafted website or open a file.

Is there known malware, which exploits this vulnerability?

No. We are not aware of malware exploiting this vulnerability.