Ubuntu Security Notices
USN-8657-1

USN-8657-1: Vim vulnerabilities

Publication date

20 August 2026

Overview

Several security issues were fixed in Vim.

Releases

26.04 LTS 24.04 LTS 22.04 LTS 20.04 LTS 18.04 LTS 16.04 LTS 14.04 LTS

Packages

vim - Vi IMproved - enhanced vi editor

Details

It was discovered that Vim incorrectly handled memory when decoding
certain JSON input. An attacker could possibly use this issue to cause
Vim to crash, resulting in a denial of service. This issue only affected
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, and Ubuntu 26.04 LTS.
(CVE-2026-73071)

Yazan Balawneh discovered that Vim incorrectly handled memory when
opening certain spell files. An attacker could possibly use this issue to
cause Vim to crash, resulting in a denial of service, or possibly execute
arbitrary code. (CVE-2026-73072)

It was discovered that Vim incorrectly handled memory when processing
certain files with a large number of text properties. An attacker could
possibly use this issue to cause Vim to crash, resulting in a denial of
service, or possibly execute arbitrary code. This issue only affected
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, Ubuntu 24.04 LTS,...

It was discovered that Vim incorrectly handled certain vimball files. An
attacker could possibly use this issue to execute arbitrary code.
(CVE-2026-73076)

It was discovered that Vim incorrectly handled shell arguments during
keyword lookups. An attacker could possibly use this issue to execute
arbitrary code. This issue only affected Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, Ubuntu 24.04
LTS, and Ubuntu 26.04 LTS. (CVE-2026-73077)

David Carliez discovered that Vim incorrectly handled certain directory
paths when constructing netrw menus. An attacker could possibly use this
issue to execute arbitrary code. (CVE-2026-73078)

Update instructions

In general, a standard system update will make all the necessary changes.

Learn more about how to get the fixes.

The problem can be corrected by updating your system to the following package versions:

Ubuntu Release	Package Version
26.04 LTS resolute	vim – 2:9.1.2141-1ubuntu4.8
	vim-common – 2:9.1.2141-1ubuntu4.8
	vim-gtk3 – 2:9.1.2141-1ubuntu4.8
	vim-gui-common – 2:9.1.2141-1ubuntu4.8
	vim-motif – 2:9.1.2141-1ubuntu4.8
	vim-nox – 2:9.1.2141-1ubuntu4.8
	vim-runtime – 2:9.1.2141-1ubuntu4.8
	vim-tiny – 2:9.1.2141-1ubuntu4.8
	xxd – 2:9.1.2141-1ubuntu4.8
24.04 LTS noble	vim – 2:9.1.0016-1ubuntu7.19
	vim-athena – 2:9.1.0016-1ubuntu7.19
	vim-common – 2:9.1.0016-1ubuntu7.19
	vim-gtk3 – 2:9.1.0016-1ubuntu7.19
	vim-gui-common – 2:9.1.0016-1ubuntu7.19
	vim-motif – 2:9.1.0016-1ubuntu7.19
	vim-nox – 2:9.1.0016-1ubuntu7.19
	vim-runtime – 2:9.1.0016-1ubuntu7.19
	vim-tiny – 2:9.1.0016-1ubuntu7.19
	xxd – 2:9.1.0016-1ubuntu7.19
22.04 LTS jammy	vim – 2:8.2.3995-1ubuntu2.35
	vim-athena – 2:8.2.3995-1ubuntu2.35
	vim-common – 2:8.2.3995-1ubuntu2.35
	vim-gtk – 2:8.2.3995-1ubuntu2.35
	vim-gtk3 – 2:8.2.3995-1ubuntu2.35
	vim-gui-common – 2:8.2.3995-1ubuntu2.35
	vim-nox – 2:8.2.3995-1ubuntu2.35
	vim-runtime – 2:8.2.3995-1ubuntu2.35
	vim-tiny – 2:8.2.3995-1ubuntu2.35
	xxd – 2:8.2.3995-1ubuntu2.35
20.04 LTS focal	vim – 2:8.1.2269-1ubuntu5.32+esm12
	vim-athena – 2:8.1.2269-1ubuntu5.32+esm12
	vim-common – 2:8.1.2269-1ubuntu5.32+esm12
	vim-gtk – 2:8.1.2269-1ubuntu5.32+esm12
	vim-gtk3 – 2:8.1.2269-1ubuntu5.32+esm12
	vim-gui-common – 2:8.1.2269-1ubuntu5.32+esm12
	vim-nox – 2:8.1.2269-1ubuntu5.32+esm12
	vim-runtime – 2:8.1.2269-1ubuntu5.32+esm12
	vim-tiny – 2:8.1.2269-1ubuntu5.32+esm12
	xxd – 2:8.1.2269-1ubuntu5.32+esm12
18.04 LTS bionic	vim – 2:8.0.1453-1ubuntu1.13+esm23
	vim-athena – 2:8.0.1453-1ubuntu1.13+esm23
	vim-common – 2:8.0.1453-1ubuntu1.13+esm23
	vim-gnome – 2:8.0.1453-1ubuntu1.13+esm23
	vim-gtk – 2:8.0.1453-1ubuntu1.13+esm23
	vim-gtk3 – 2:8.0.1453-1ubuntu1.13+esm23
	vim-gui-common – 2:8.0.1453-1ubuntu1.13+esm23
	vim-nox – 2:8.0.1453-1ubuntu1.13+esm23
	vim-runtime – 2:8.0.1453-1ubuntu1.13+esm23
	vim-tiny – 2:8.0.1453-1ubuntu1.13+esm23
	xxd – 2:8.0.1453-1ubuntu1.13+esm23
16.04 LTS xenial	vim – 2:7.4.1689-3ubuntu1.5+esm38
	vim-athena – 2:7.4.1689-3ubuntu1.5+esm38
	vim-athena-py2 – 2:7.4.1689-3ubuntu1.5+esm38
	vim-common – 2:7.4.1689-3ubuntu1.5+esm38
	vim-gnome – 2:7.4.1689-3ubuntu1.5+esm38
	vim-gnome-py2 – 2:7.4.1689-3ubuntu1.5+esm38
	vim-gtk – 2:7.4.1689-3ubuntu1.5+esm38
	vim-gtk-py2 – 2:7.4.1689-3ubuntu1.5+esm38
	vim-gtk3 – 2:7.4.1689-3ubuntu1.5+esm38
	vim-gtk3-py2 – 2:7.4.1689-3ubuntu1.5+esm38
	vim-gui-common – 2:7.4.1689-3ubuntu1.5+esm38
	vim-nox – 2:7.4.1689-3ubuntu1.5+esm38
	vim-nox-py2 – 2:7.4.1689-3ubuntu1.5+esm38
	vim-runtime – 2:7.4.1689-3ubuntu1.5+esm38
	vim-tiny – 2:7.4.1689-3ubuntu1.5+esm38
14.04 LTS trusty	vim – 2:7.4.052-1ubuntu3.1+esm32
	vim-athena – 2:7.4.052-1ubuntu3.1+esm32
	vim-common – 2:7.4.052-1ubuntu3.1+esm32
	vim-gnome – 2:7.4.052-1ubuntu3.1+esm32
	vim-gtk – 2:7.4.052-1ubuntu3.1+esm32
	vim-gui-common – 2:7.4.052-1ubuntu3.1+esm32
	vim-lesstif – 2:7.4.052-1ubuntu3.1+esm32
	vim-nox – 2:7.4.052-1ubuntu3.1+esm32
	vim-runtime – 2:7.4.052-1ubuntu3.1+esm32
	vim-tiny – 2:7.4.052-1ubuntu3.1+esm32

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References

USN-8101-1

USN-8101-1