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HIGHpublic exploit

CVE-2025-49144

CVE-2025-49144 — Notepad++ Privilege Escalation in Installer via Uncontrolled Executable Search Path

Notepad++ is a free and open-source source code editor. In versions 8.8.1 and prior, a privilege escalation vulnerability exists in the Notepad++ v8.8.1 installer that allows unprivileged users to gain SYSTEM-level privileges through insecure executable search paths. An attacker could use social engineering or clickjacking to trick users into downloading both the legitimate installer and a malicious executable to the same directory (typically Downloads folder - which is known as Vulnerable directory). Upon running the installer, the attack executes automatically with SYSTEM privileges. This issue has been fixed and will be released in version 8.8.2.

Published Updated Sources: cvelistV5, GitHub_M

Triage

Is it exploited, how likely is exploitation, what does it touch, and how severe do the scoring sources call it.

Exploitation

Exploit code

public exploit, none observed

EPSS

1%

chance of exploitation in 30 days

Affects

notepad plus plus

notepad_plus_plus

CVSS base

7.3

HIGH

CISA SSVC assessment

Three decision points CISA publishes for the CVEs it assesses · SSVC 2.0.3. A stakeholder decision, not a severity score.

CISA

Exploitation

None

none · proof-of-concept · active

Automatable

No

can an attacker script all four kill-chain steps

Technical impact

Total

partial · total control of the vulnerable component

Affected scope

The catalog records vendors and products as separate lists, not pairs, so which product belongs to which vendor is not something this page can say.

Products (1)

notepad plus plus

Every base score collected

Sources score independently and disagree; each row says who scored it and under which version.

ScoreVersionSeverityExpl.ImpactSource
7.3CVSS 3.1HIGH——cvelistV5

Weakness & attack patterns

  • CWE-272
  • CWE-276
  • CWE-427

Attack patterns reported against this CVE. The ATT&CK techniques below are inferred from its weakness class.

  • T1574.005Hijack Execution Flow: Executable Installer File Permissions Weakness
  • T1574.010Hijack Execution Flow: Services File Permissions Weakness
  • T1027.006Obfuscated Files or Information: HTML Smuggling

Public exploit

Capability, not use: code existing is a different claim from anyone running it.

Indexed by

poc in github

References

7 on the record

Elsewhere on this site

Not in any source we poll

Listed rather than left blank: an empty field and an unmeasured one look identical on screen, and only one is a reason to look elsewhere.

  • No confirmed IOCs, IP addresses, domains, file hashes, or malware artifacts supplied.
  • No organization-specific asset inventory, compensating-control status, or patch deployment evidence supplied.
  • No exploit packet captures, log samples, or incident case IDs supplied.