Quick answers
- Is CVE-2026-71858 exploited in the wild?
- No. Junglewise Threat Intelligence has no report of CVE-2026-71858 being exploited in the wild.
- How severe is CVE-2026-71858?
- Informational severity, published 17 August 2026.
- Which products and versions are affected?
- Notepad++ Notepad++ prior to 8.9.7.
- Is there a fix for CVE-2026-71858?
- A patch was published on 2026-07-14: Fix released in version 8.9.7 Junglewise finds every place you run it, drafts the upgrade and applies it once you approve.
- How is CVE-2026-71858 attacked?
- It is attacked with local access.
- Am I affected by CVE-2026-71858?
- Check whether anything you run is named in the advisory. Junglewise does that check for you around the clock: connect your code, cloud and domains, and it matches new vulnerabilities like this one against what you actually run and tells you when one reaches you.
Technical details
The vulnerability is a cryptographic validation bypass affecting the macro system in Notepad++. Macros loaded from an attacker-controlled shortcuts.xml file bypass HMAC validation that is normally applied to UserDefinedCommands. When this validation is bypassed, an attacker can invoke Scintilla actions and the internal "Open in Default Viewer" command in an elevated Notepad++ process. The attack requires a local attacker to influence the settingsDir configuration parameter and a user to trigger the malicious macro. The vulnerability is fixed in version 8.9.7, which properly validates HMAC signatures before executing macros.
Affected products
- Notepad++ Notepad++ prior to 8.9.7
Timeline
- 2026-08-17: disclosed
- 2026-07-14: patched: Fix released in version 8.9.7