Skip to content
Fencer Vulns
high 7.8

CVE-2021-3872 json

Heap-based Buffer Overflow in vim/vim

published 2021-10-19 5 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2021-27106

cvss
7.8
version 3.0, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
1.5%
EPSS 1.5% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 74%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

vim is vulnerable to Heap-based Buffer Overflow

Patch / fix

  • vim vim/vim 8.2.3487
  • vim Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 2:8.2.3565-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2021-3872

  • vim Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 2:8.1.2269-1ubuntu5.4
  • vim Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 2:8.2.3565-1ubuntu2

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2021-3872

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 2:8.0.1763-16.el8_5.4
  • vim-X11 RHEL 8 2:8.0.1763-16.el8_5.4
  • vim-common RHEL 8 2:8.0.1763-16.el8_5.4
  • vim-minimal RHEL 8 2:8.0.1763-16.el8_5.4
  • vim-enhanced RHEL 8 2:8.0.1763-16.el8_5.4
  • vim-filesystem RHEL 8 2:8.0.1763-16.el8_5.4

red hat advisories RHSA-2022:0366

  • 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 15 SP2, SLES for SAP 15 SP1, SLES for SAP 15 +24 more 8.2.5038-150000.5.21.1
  • vim SLES 15 SP2-BCL, SLES 15 SP1-BCL, SLE Real Time 15 SP2 +22 more 8.0.1568-5.17.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2022:4619-1SUSE-SU-2022:2102-1SUSE-SU-2022:0736-2SUSE-SU-2022:0736-1

  • vim openSUSE Leap 15.3 8.0.1568-5.17.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2022:0736-1

  • vim-X11 AlmaLinux 8 2:8.0.1763-16.el8_5.13
  • vim-common AlmaLinux 8 2:8.0.1763-16.el8_5.13
  • vim-minimal AlmaLinux 8 2:8.0.1763-16.el8_5.13
  • vim-enhanced AlmaLinux 8 2:8.0.1763-16.el8_5.13
  • vim-filesystem AlmaLinux 8 2:8.0.1763-16.el8_5.13

almalinux advisories ALSA-2022:0366

  • vim Rocky Linux 8 2:8.0.1763-16.el8_5.4

rocky linux advisories RLSA-2022:0366

  • vim Arch Linux 8.2.3582-1
  • gvim Arch Linux 8.2.3582-1

arch linux advisories AVG-2472

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-2021-3872 updated cvss 6.6

vim: heap-based buffer overflow in win_redr_status() in drawscreen.c

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 vim, vim-X11, vim-common, vim-minimal, vim-enhanced, vim-filesystem Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 vim, vim-X11, vim-common, vim-minimal, vim-enhanced, vim-filesystem
    affected: workaround, no fix planned “Since this flaw requires user interaction, mitigation is to not open files from untrusted sources using vim.”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 8) vim-X11 8.0.1763-16.el8_5.4, vim-common 8.0.1763-16.el8_5.4, vim-enhanced 8.0.1763-16.el8_5.4, vim-filesystem 8.0.1763-16.el8_5.4 Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS (v. 8) vim 8.0.1763-16.el8_5.4, vim-minimal 8.0.1763-16.el8_5.4
    fixed: vendor fix “Since this flaw requires user interaction, mitigation is to not open files from untrusted sources using vim.” RHSA-2022:0366
  • Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes 2 rhacm2/openshift-hive-rhel8 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 vim, vim-X11, vim-common, vim-minimal, vim-enhanced, vim-filesystem
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

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

1.49% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 74% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Exploits and checks

  • huntr.dev https://huntr.dev/bounties/c958013b-1c09-4939-92ca-92f50aa169e8 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.0 7.8 CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 3.1 7.8 CVSS:3.1/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

  • vim vim/vim

Classification

Weakness

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.