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Fencer Intel
low 3.3

CVE-2026-73071 json

Vim: Use-after-free in JSON Decoding

published 3mo ago modified last mo. also EUVD-2026-56225

cvss
3.3
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.1%
EPSS 0.1% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 1%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

Vim is an open source, command line text editor. From 9.2.0511 until 9.2.0844, json_decode_item() in src/json.c can retain a stale pointer after json_decode_string() invokes channel_fill() to refill and free the current buffer, causing the error path to read freed memory instead of reader->js_buf + reader->js_used when an invalid JSON string spans buffers. This issue is fixed in version 9.2.0844.

Patch / fix

  • vim vim 9.2.0844
  • vim Debian 14 2:9.2.0858-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2026-73071

  • vim Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 2:8.2.3995-1ubuntu2.35
  • vim Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 2:9.1.0016-1ubuntu7.19
  • vim Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 2:9.1.2141-1ubuntu4.8

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2026-73071

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 Linux Micro 6.0 9.2.0957-1.1
  • vim SLES 16.0, Linux Micro Extras 6.2, Linux Micro 6.2 +1 more 9.2.0957-160000.1.1
  • vim SLES for SAP 15 SP6, SLES for SAP 15 SP5, SLES 15 SP6-LTSS +6 more 9.2.0957-150500.20.64.1
  • vim SLE Micro 5.4, SLE Micro 5.3, SLE High Performance Computing 15 SP4-ESPOS +3 more 9.2.0957-150000.5.102.1
  • vim Linux Micro 6.1 9.2.0957-slfo.1.1_1.1
  • vim SLES LTSS Extended Security 12 SP5, SLES 12 SP5-LTSS 9.2.0957-17.76.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2026:23365-1SUSE-SU-2026:23393-1SUSE-SU-2026:23552-1SUSE-SU-2026:23391-1SUSE-SU-2026:3680-1SUSE-SU-2026:3679-1

  • vim openSUSE Leap 16.0 9.2.0957-160000.1.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2026:21671-1

  • vim Alpine 3.24, Alpine 3.23 9.2.0854-r0

alpine advisories ALPINE-CVE-2026-73071

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 Azure Linux 3.0 9.2.0957-1

azure linux advisories AZL-95976

Azure Linux vulnerability data, Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation, from https://github.com/microsoft/AzureLinuxVulnerabilityData via OSV, under the MIT licence; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. MIT

Is CVE-2026-73071 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.

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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-2026-73071 updated cvss 3.3

vim: Vim: Denial of Service via Use-After-Free in JSON Decoding

  • 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 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 vim, vim-X11, vim-common, vim-minimal, vim-enhanced, vim-filesystem Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 vim, vim-X11, vim-common, vim-minimal, vim-enhanced, vim-filesystem Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 vim Red Hat Hardened Images vim
    +2 more products
    Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4 openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-8, openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-9 Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 5 openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-9
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

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

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
none
Automatable
no
Technical impact
partial
Assessed
3mo ago

Exploit prediction

0.11% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 1% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-11).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 3.3 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L

Affected products

  • vim vim

Classification

Weakness

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.

CPEs and fixed versions use Anchore's correction of NVD's data: Added CPE configurations because not yet analyzed by NVD.