CVE-2026-25926
CVE-2026-25926 — Notepad++ has an Untrusted Search Path
Notepad++ is a free and open-source source code editor. An Unsafe Search Path vulnerability (CWE-426) exists in versions prior to 8.9.2 when launching Windows Explorer without an absolute executable path. This may allow execution of a malicious explorer.exe if an attacker can control the process working directory. Under certain conditions, this could lead to arbitrary code execution in the context of the running application. Version 8.9.2 patches the issue.
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
Unreported
no source claims exploitation
EPSS
0%
chance of exploitation in 30 days
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.
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.
Vendors (1)
Products (1)
Every base score collected
Sources score independently and disagree; each row says who scored it and under which version.
| Score | Version | Severity | Expl. | Impact | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7.3 | CVSS 3.1 | HIGH | — | — | cvelistV5 |
Weakness & attack patterns
- CWE-426
Attack patterns reported against this CVE. The ATT&CK techniques below are inferred from its weakness class.
- T1574.007Hijack Execution Flow: Path Interception by PATH Environment Variable
- T1574.009Hijack Execution Flow: Path Interception by Unquoted Path
References
3 on the record
- github.com/notepad-plus-plus/notepad-plus-plus/security/advisories/GHSA-rjvm-fcxw-2jxq
x_refsource_CONFIRM
- github.com/notepad-plus-plus/notepad-plus-plus/releases/tag/v8.9.2
x_refsource_MISC
- notepad-plus-plus.org/news/v892-released
x_refsource_MISC
Elsewhere on this site
- notepad plus plusevery CVE for this vendor
- CWE-426other pages naming this weakness
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.