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CVE-2016-1248

32
FAUCET Score

CVE-2016-1248 describes a critical vulnerability in Vim, specifically affecting versions prior to patch 8.0.0056, including Debian distributions. This flaw allows for arbitrary code execution when a user opens a specially crafted file containing malicious modeline options for 'filetype', 'syntax', or 'keymap'. With a CVSS v3 score of 7.8 (High), the vulnerability requires user interaction (UI:R) and local access (AV:L), but can lead to complete compromise of confidentiality, integrity, and availability (C:H/I:H/A:H). While there is no evidence of active exploitation in the wild (KEV: No) and no public exploit code (Metasploit, Nuclei, ExploitDB: None), the vulnerability has garnered significant community attention with one Hacker News article and a high FAUCET Risk Score of 85/100, indicating its potential impact.

Impacted Technologies

VendorProductVersion(s)CPE
<= 8.0.0055CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:vim:vim:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
8.0CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:8.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

CVSS Data

CVSS version used by this source: 3.0

7.8HIGH

CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Attack Vector
LOCAL
Attack Complexity
LOW
Privileges Required
NONE
User Interaction
REQUIRED
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality Impact
HIGH
Integrity Impact
HIGH
Availability Impact
HIGH
Exploitability Score
1.8
Impact Score
5.9
CvssVersion
3.0

Exploit Intelligence

EPSS Score
25.31%
Probability of exploitation in next 30 days
EPSS Percentile
97.7%
Percentile rank of EPSS score among Peer Group
As of 2026-07-27
Model: v2026.06.15
This CVE's current EPSS score of 0.2531 is in the 98th percentile among its peer group of 11,617 CVEs.

Social Chatter

The average CVE in this peer group has 0.0 Twitter, 0.1 Reddit, 0.1 Bluesky, 0.0 Mastodon, and 0.2 GitHub mentions.

Media Mentions

The average CVE in this peer group has 0.3 InfoSec Media, 0.0 Vendor Blog, and 0.0 Security Researcher mentions.

Remediation

Patch Available

Vendor Patches (4)

github_advisorypatch availablevia nvd_reference
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6Fixed in: vim-2:7.4.629-5.el6_8.1
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7Fixed in: vim-2:7.4.160-1.el7_3.1
View patch
redhatend of lifevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5Fixed in: vim

Vendor Advisories (1)

redhatCVE-2016-1248Moderate

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

Nov 20, 2016

References

openwall.com / lists/oss-security/2016/11/22/20
PatchThird Party Advisory
rhn.redhat.com / errata/RHSA-2016-2972.html
anonscm.debian.org / cgit/pkg-vim/vim.git/tree/debian/changelog
PatchThird Party Advisory
github.com / neovim/neovim/commit/4fad66fbe637818b6b3d6bc5d21923ba72795040
PatchVendor Advisory
github.com / vim/vim/commit/d0b5138ba4bccff8a744c99836041ef6322ed39a
PatchVendor Advisory
github.com / vim/vim/releases/tag/v8.0.0056
PatchVendor Advisory
lists.debian.org / debian-lts-announce/2016/11/msg00025.html
Mailing ListThird Party Advisory
lists.debian.org / debian-security-announce/2016/msg00305.html
Third Party Advisory
security.gentoo.org / glsa/201701-29
debian.org / security/2016/dsa-3722
securityfocus.com / bid/94478
securitytracker.com / id/1037338
ubuntu.com / usn/USN-3139-1