Is CVE-2026-73072 exploited in the wild?

No. Junglewise Threat Intelligence has no report of CVE-2026-73072 being exploited in the wild.

How severe is CVE-2026-73072?

Informational severity, with a CVSS score of 7.3, published 11 August 2026.

Is there a fix for CVE-2026-73072?

A patch was published on 2026-07-24: Fixed in Vim v9.2.0846 Junglewise finds every place you run it, drafts the upgrade and applies it once you approve.

How is CVE-2026-73072 attacked?

It is attacked with local access.

Am I affected by CVE-2026-73072?

Check whether you run Vim at an affected version. 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.

CVE-2026-73072: Vim heap buffer overflow in spell file parsing

CVE-2026-73072 · Severity: info · CVSS 7.3 · Published 2026-08-11

Vim is a widely-used text editor that supports spell checking via spell files. A crafted spell file can trigger a heap buffer overflow in Vim's spell file parser, allowing an attacker who can trick a user into opening a malicious spell file to corrupt memory and potentially execute code or crash the editor.

Technologies: Vim. Vendors: Vim.

Quick answers

Is CVE-2026-73072 exploited in the wild?: No. Junglewise Threat Intelligence has no report of CVE-2026-73072 being exploited in the wild.
How severe is CVE-2026-73072?: Informational severity, with a CVSS score of 7.3, published 11 August 2026.
Which products and versions are affected?: Vim prior to 9.2.0846.
Is there a fix for CVE-2026-73072?: A patch was published on 2026-07-24: Fixed in Vim v9.2.0846 Junglewise finds every place you run it, drafts the upgrade and applies it once you approve.
How is CVE-2026-73072 attacked?: It is attacked with local access.
Am I affected by CVE-2026-73072?: Check whether you run Vim at an affected version. 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 heap buffer overflow in the set_sofo() function in src/spellfile.c. The root cause is that sl_sal_first[] is reused without being reset between processing SN_SAL and SN_SOFO sections in a spell file. When a crafted spell file contains an empty SN_SAL section followed by an SN_SOFO section, the set_sofo() function under-counts multi-byte character mappings, allocates an undersized heap buffer, and writes past its end. The attack requires user interaction (opening a malicious spell file). The vulnerability was fixed in Vim 9.2.0846.

Affected products

Vim Vim prior to 9.2.0846

Timeline

2026-08-11: disclosed
2026-07-24: patched: Fixed in Vim v9.2.0846

References

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