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Fencer Vulns
high 7.8

CVE-2016-1248 in the critical feed json

vim before patch 8.0.0056 does not properly validate values for the 'filetype', 'syntax' and 'keymap' options, which may result in the exec…

published 2016-11-23 9 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2016-2347

cvss
7.8
version 3.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
25.3%
EPSS 25.3% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 97%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

vim before patch 8.0.0056 does not properly validate values for the 'filetype', 'syntax' and 'keymap' options, which may result in the execution of arbitrary code if a file with a specially crafted modeline is opened.

Patch / fix

  • vim Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 2:8.0.0095-1
  • neovim Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 0.1.6-4

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2016-1248

  • vim Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 2:7.4.052-1ubuntu3.1
  • vim Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 2:7.4.1689-3ubuntu1.2

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2016-1248

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • vim RHEL 6 2:7.4.629-5.el6_8.1
  • vim RHEL 7 2:7.4.160-1.el7_3.1
  • vim-X11 RHEL 6 2:7.4.629-5.el6_8.1
  • vim-X11 RHEL 7 2:7.4.160-1.el7_3.1
  • vim-common RHEL 6 2:7.4.629-5.el6_8.1
  • vim-common RHEL 7 2:7.4.160-1.el7_3.1
  • vim-minimal RHEL 6 2:7.4.629-5.el6_8.1
  • vim-minimal RHEL 7 2:7.4.160-1.el7_3.1

red hat advisories RHSA-2016:2972

  • vim SLES for SAP 12 SP5, SLES for SAP 12 SP4, SLES 12 SP5 +5 more 9.0.0814-17.9.1
  • vim SLES for SAP 12 SP2, SLES for SAP 12 SP1, SLES for Raspberry Pi 12 SP2 +4 more 7.4.326-7.1
  • vim SLES for SAP 11 SP4, SLES 11 SP4 7.2-8.17.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2022:4619-1SUSE-SU-2016:2942-1SUSE-SU-2016:2938-1

  • vim Alpine 3.24, Alpine 3.23, Alpine 3.22 +17 more 8.0.0056-r0
  • vim Alpine 3.2 7.4.712-r1
  • vim Alpine 3.3 7.4.943-r4
  • vim Alpine 3.4 7.4.1831-r2
  • neovim Alpine 3.24, Alpine 3.23, Alpine 3.22 +17 more 0.1.6-r1

alpine advisories ALPINE-CVE-2016-1248

Alpine secdb © Alpine Linux, from https://secdb.alpinelinux.org via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • neovim Arch Linux 0.1.7-1
  • vim Arch Linux 8.0.0056-1

arch linux advisories AVG-82AVG-83

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2016-1248 updated cvss 7.5

vim: Lack of validation of values for few options results in code exection

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 vim
    affected: workaround, no fix planned “Disabling modeline support in .vimrc by adding "set nomodeline" will prevent exploitation of this flaw. By default, modeline is enabled for ordinary users but disabled for root.”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client (v. 7) vim 7.4.160-1.el7_3.1, vim-X11 7.4.160-1.el7_3.1, vim-common 7.4.160-1.el7_3.1, vim-minimal 7.4.160-1.el7_3.1, vim-enhanced 7.4.160-1.el7_3.1, vim-filesystem 7.4.160-1.el7_3.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode (v. 7) vim 7.4.160-1.el7_3.1, vim-common 7.4.160-1.el7_3.1, vim-minimal 7.4.160-1.el7_3.1, vim-enhanced 7.4.160-1.el7_3.1, vim-filesystem 7.4.160-1.el7_3.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode Optional (v. 7) vim-X11 7.4.160-1.el7_3.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop (v. 6) vim 7.4.629-5.el6_8.1, vim-X11 7.4.629-5.el6_8.1, vim-common 7.4.629-5.el6_8.1, vim-minimal 7.4.629-5.el6_8.1, vim-enhanced 7.4.629-5.el6_8.1, vim-filesystem 7.4.629-5.el6_8.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux HPC Node (v. 6) vim 7.4.629-5.el6_8.1, vim-common 7.4.629-5.el6_8.1, vim-minimal 7.4.629-5.el6_8.1, vim-enhanced 7.4.629-5.el6_8.1, vim-filesystem 7.4.629-5.el6_8.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux HPC Node Optional (v. 6) vim-X11 7.4.629-5.el6_8.1
    +4 more products
    Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 6) vim 7.4.629-5.el6_8.1, vim-X11 7.4.629-5.el6_8.1, vim-common 7.4.629-5.el6_8.1, vim-minimal 7.4.629-5.el6_8.1, vim-enhanced 7.4.629-5.el6_8.1, vim-filesystem 7.4.629-5.el6_8.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 7) vim 7.4.160-1.el7_3.1, vim-X11 7.4.160-1.el7_3.1, vim-common 7.4.160-1.el7_3.1, vim-minimal 7.4.160-1.el7_3.1, vim-enhanced 7.4.160-1.el7_3.1, vim-filesystem 7.4.160-1.el7_3.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 6) vim 7.4.629-5.el6_8.1, vim-X11 7.4.629-5.el6_8.1, vim-common 7.4.629-5.el6_8.1, vim-minimal 7.4.629-5.el6_8.1, vim-enhanced 7.4.629-5.el6_8.1, vim-filesystem 7.4.629-5.el6_8.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 7) vim 7.4.160-1.el7_3.1, vim-X11 7.4.160-1.el7_3.1, vim-common 7.4.160-1.el7_3.1, vim-minimal 7.4.160-1.el7_3.1, vim-enhanced 7.4.160-1.el7_3.1, vim-filesystem 7.4.160-1.el7_3.1
    fixed: vendor fix “Disabling modeline support in .vimrc by adding "set nomodeline" will prevent exploitation of this flaw. By default, modeline is enabled for ordinary users but disabled for root.” RHSA-2016:2972

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

Exploit prediction

25.31% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 97% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.0 7.8 CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 2.0 6.8 AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

Affected products

  • n/a vim before patch 8.0.0056

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-20 Improper Input Validation

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.