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Fencer Vulns
medium 5.3

CVE-2019-20807 json

In Vim before 8.1.0881, users can circumvent the rvim restricted mode and execute arbitrary OS commands via scripting interfaces (e.g., Pyt…

published 2020-05-28 6 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2019-11344

cvss
5.3
version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.5%
EPSS 0.5% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 40%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

In Vim before 8.1.0881, users can circumvent the rvim restricted mode and execute arbitrary OS commands via scripting interfaces (e.g., Python, Ruby, or Lua).

Patch / fix

  • vim vim 8.1.0881
  • vim Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 2:8.1.2136-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2019-20807

  • vim Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 2:7.4.1689-3ubuntu1.5
  • vim Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 2:8.0.1453-1ubuntu1.4
  • vim Ubuntu Pro 14.04 LTS 2:7.4.052-1ubuntu3.1+esm4

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2019-20807

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 8 2:8.0.1763-15.el8
  • vim-X11 RHEL 8 2:8.0.1763-15.el8
  • vim-common RHEL 8 2:8.0.1763-15.el8
  • vim-minimal RHEL 8 2:8.0.1763-15.el8
  • vim-enhanced RHEL 8 2:8.0.1763-15.el8
  • vim-filesystem RHEL 8 2:8.0.1763-15.el8

red hat advisories RHSA-2020:4453

  • vim SLES for SAP 15, SLES 15-LTSS, SLE Module for Desktop Applications 15 SP2 +5 more 8.0.1568-5.6.1
  • vim SLES for SAP 12 SP5, SLES for SAP 12 SP4, SLES for SAP 12 SP3 +12 more 7.4.326-17.6.1
  • vim SLES 11 SP4-LTSS, SLE Point of Sale 11 SP3 7.2-8.21.6.2

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2020:1551-1SUSE-SU-2020:1550-1SUSE-SU-2020:14385-1

  • vim openSUSE Leap 15.1 8.0.1568-lp151.5.6.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2020:0794-1

  • vim Rocky Linux 8 2:8.0.1763-15.el8

rocky linux advisories RLSA-2020:4453

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-2019-20807 updated cvss 5.3

vim: users can execute arbitrary OS commands via scripting interfaces in the rvim restricted mode

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 vim Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 vim, vim-X11, vim-common, vim-minimal, vim-enhanced, vim-filesystem
    affected: no fix planned “Out of support scope”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 vim, vim-X11, vim-common, vim-minimal, vim-enhanced, vim-filesystem
    affected: no fix planned “Will not fix”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 8) vim-X11 8.0.1763-15.el8, vim-common 8.0.1763-15.el8, vim-enhanced 8.0.1763-15.el8, vim-filesystem 8.0.1763-15.el8 Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS (v. 8) vim 8.0.1763-15.el8, vim-minimal 8.0.1763-15.el8
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2020:4453

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

0.47% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 40% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.1 5.3 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L
NVD 2.0 4.6 AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-78 Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an OS Command

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.