Debian LinuxOperating system · Debian

CVE-2022-1621

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2022-05-10
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 8.2.4919 / 13.0 or later.
See remediation →
81/100
Remediation priority · High
Public exploit No privileges Patch available

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
Heap buffer overflow in vim_strncpy find_word in GitHub repository vim/vim prior to 8.2.4919. This vulnerability is capable of crashing software, Bypass Protection Mechanism, Modify Memory, and possible remote execution

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis
How this class of weakness works · CWE-122

Data overflows a buffer allocated on the heap, corrupting neighbouring heap structures and allocator metadata that a patient attacker can groom into control of execution. It is subtler than a stack overflow but just as dangerous. The fix is validating lengths before every write and using safe allocators and bounded operations.

General guidance for the heap-based buffer overflow class — the official description and references above are authoritative for this specific CVE. Want a bespoke review and a reviewed fix? Ask our team →

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
Debian LinuxOperating system
Affected:= 9.0= 10.0
FedoraOperating system
Affected:= 34= 35
VimApplication
Affected:< 8.2.4919
macOSOperating system
Affected:< 13.0

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 8.2.4919 / 13.0 or later
Fixed in 8.2.491913.0
Vendor patch github.com →
Recommended fix High confidence

Vim 8.2.4919 or later (or Vim 9.0+ if available)

  1. Identify the current Vim version by running: vim --version
  2. For Linux systems: Upgrade Vim to version 8.2.4919 or later using your package manager (apt, dnf, yum)
  3. For macOS: Upgrade to macOS 13.0 (Ventura) or later, which includes a fixed Vim version, or install a newer Vim via Homebrew: brew install vim
  4. Verify the fix by checking: vim --version and confirming the version is 8.2.4919 or higher
  5. Alternatively, rebuild Vim from source using the commit 7c824682d2028432ee082703ef0ab399867a089b to apply the specific fix
Caveat Major version upgrades (e.g., Vim 8.x to 9.x) may introduce minor compatibility changes in vimrc or plugin behavior; review release notes if applicable

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

We can perform the upgrade in your staging environment and verify nothing breaks — typical engagement from $1,950. Get the upgrade done

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2022-1621 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.

References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2022-1621 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data