Skip to content
Fencer Intel
critical 9.8

CVE-2017-5953 json

vim before patch 8.0.0322 does not properly validate values for tree length when handling a spell file, which may result in an integer over…

published 2017-02-10 9 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2017-15023

cvss
9.8
version 3.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
2.8%
EPSS 2.8% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 86%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

vim before patch 8.0.0322 does not properly validate values for tree length when handling a spell file, which may result in an integer overflow at a memory allocation site and a resultant buffer overflow.

Patch / fix

  • vim Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 2:8.0.0197-2
  • neovim Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 0.1.7-4

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2017-5953

  • vim Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 2:7.4.1689-3ubuntu1.3
  • vim Ubuntu Pro 14.04 LTS 2:7.4.052-1ubuntu3.1+esm1

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2017-5953

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • vim SLES for SAP 12 SP5, SLES for SAP 12 SP4, SLES 12 SP5 +5 more 9.0.0814-17.9.1
  • vim SLES for SAP 11 SP4, SLES 11 SP4 7.2-8.20.8
  • vim SLES for SAP 12 SP2, SLES for Raspberry Pi 12 SP2, SLES 12 SP2 +1 more 7.4.326-16.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2022:4619-1SUSE-SU-2017:1775-1SUSE-SU-2017:1712-1

  • neovim openSUSE Tumbleweed 0.5.1-1.1
  • vim openSUSE Tumbleweed 8.2.3408-1.2

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2024:11081-1openSUSE-SU-2024:11497-1

  • vim Alpine 3.24, Alpine 3.23, Alpine 3.22 +17 more 8.0.0329-r0
  • vim Alpine 3.2 7.4.712-r2
  • vim Alpine 3.3 7.4.943-r5
  • vim Alpine 3.4 7.4.1831-r3
  • neovim Alpine 3.24, Alpine 3.23, Alpine 3.22 +16 more 0.2.0-r0

alpine advisories ALPINE-CVE-2017-5953

Alpine secdb © Alpine Linux, from https://secdb.alpinelinux.org via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • vim Arch Linux 8.0.0322-1
  • gvim Arch Linux 8.0.0322-1

arch linux advisories AVG-174

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2017-5953 updated cvss 2.5

vim: Tree length values not validated properly when handling a spell file

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 vim Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 vim, vim-X11, vim-common, vim-minimal, vim-enhanced, vim-filesystem Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 vim, vim-X11, vim-common, vim-minimal, vim-enhanced, vim-filesystem
    affected: no fix planned “Will not fix”

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

Exploit prediction

2.83% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 86% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.0 9.8 CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 2.0 7.5 AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-190 Integer Overflow or Wraparound

References

Sources

Fencer Intel keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.