Skip to content
Fencer Intel
medium 5.3

CVE-2019-20807 json

In Vim before 8.1.0881, users can circumvent the rvim restricted mode and execute arbitrary OS commands via scripting interfaces (e.g., Pyt…

published 6y ago modified 4mo ago also EUVD-2019-11344

cvss
5.3
version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.5%
EPSS 0.5% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 40%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

In Vim before 8.1.0881, users can circumvent the rvim restricted mode and execute arbitrary OS commands via scripting interfaces (e.g., Python, Ruby, or Lua).

Patch / fix

  • vim vim 8.1.0881
  • vim Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 2:8.1.2136-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2019-20807

  • vim Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 2:7.4.1689-3ubuntu1.5
  • vim Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 2:8.0.1453-1ubuntu1.4
  • vim Ubuntu Pro 14.04 LTS 2:7.4.052-1ubuntu3.1+esm4

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2019-20807

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 RHEL 8 2:8.0.1763-15.el8
  • vim-X11 RHEL 8 2:8.0.1763-15.el8
  • vim-common RHEL 8 2:8.0.1763-15.el8
  • vim-minimal RHEL 8 2:8.0.1763-15.el8
  • vim-enhanced RHEL 8 2:8.0.1763-15.el8
  • vim-filesystem RHEL 8 2:8.0.1763-15.el8

red hat advisories RHSA-2020:4453

  • vim SLES for SAP 15, SLES 15-LTSS, SLE Module for Desktop Applications 15 SP2 +5 more 8.0.1568-5.6.1
  • vim SLES for SAP 12 SP5, SLES for SAP 12 SP4, SLES for SAP 12 SP3 +12 more 7.4.326-17.6.1
  • vim SLES 11 SP4-LTSS, SLE Point of Sale 11 SP3 7.2-8.21.6.2

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2020:1551-1SUSE-SU-2020:1550-1SUSE-SU-2020:14385-1

  • vim openSUSE Leap 15.1 8.0.1568-lp151.5.6.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2020:0794-1

  • vim Rocky Linux 8 2:8.0.1763-15.el8

rocky linux advisories RLSA-2020:4453

Is CVE-2019-20807 in your stack? Fencer shows which of your repositories are affected as soon as an advisory lands, and opens the fix as a pull request.

Check with Fencer

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-2019-20807 updated cvss 5.3

vim: users can execute arbitrary OS commands via scripting interfaces in the rvim restricted mode

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 vim Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 vim, vim-X11, vim-common, vim-minimal, vim-enhanced, vim-filesystem
    affected: no fix planned “Out of support scope”
  • 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 Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 8) vim-X11 8.0.1763-15.el8, vim-common 8.0.1763-15.el8, vim-enhanced 8.0.1763-15.el8, vim-filesystem 8.0.1763-15.el8 Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS (v. 8) vim 8.0.1763-15.el8, vim-minimal 8.0.1763-15.el8
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2020:4453

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

0.47% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 40% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.1 5.3 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L
NVD 2.0 4.6 AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-78 Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an OS Command

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.