Heap-based buffer overflow in Notepad++ - #VU144988
Published: August 24, 2026
Vulnerability identifier: #VU144988
CSH Severity: Medium
CVSS v4: 7.1 [CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:A/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N]
CVE-ID: N/A
CWE-ID: CWE-122
Exploitation vector: Remote access
Exploit availability:
No public exploit available
Vulnerability details
The vulnerability allows a remote attacker to cause a denial of service.
The vulnerability exists due to heap-based buffer overflow in Utf8_16_Read::convert() when parsing a crafted UTF-16 file during normal file loading. A remote attacker can trick the victim into opening a crafted file to cause a denial of service.
User interaction is required to open the crafted document, and the issue is triggered when a UTF-16 surrogate pair is split across fixed-size file-read blocks.
Affected software
Notepad++
Remediation
Install security update from vendor's website.
Notepad++ - update to 8.9.8