🛡️ CVE-2026-38972 — notepad3

🟠 CVSS 7.8 — High ⚠️ Exploit Public CWE-427 NVD
7.8
CVSS Score
0 Low4 Medium7 High9 Critical10

Description

Notepad3 through 6.25.822.1 contains a DLL search-order hijacking vulnerability in the About-dialog code path in src/Notepad3.c. The application calls LoadLibrary(L"MSFTEDIT.DLL") with a bare DLL name, which allows a local attacker to place a malicious MSFTEDIT.DLL in the application directory or another preferred DLL search location and achieve arbitrary code execution in the context of the user when the About dialog is opened.

How this vulnerability can be exploited

This issue can be reached with local access to the system, attack complexity is low, an attacker needs no privileges on the target. A user must be tricked into taking some action. The scope is unchanged, so the impact stays within the vulnerable component. Rated impact: confidentiality high, integrity high, availability high.

Weakness class

CVE-2026-38972 is classified as CWE-427: Uncontrolled Search Path Element. A writable directory appears in a search path, so a planted file can be loaded in place of the intended one.

Affected software

CVE-2026-38972 is recorded against 1 package.

  • notepad3 (fixed in 6.25.822.1)

Timeline and source

Published on 2 July 2026 and last revised on 8 July 2026. A public exploit is known to exist, which raises the urgency of patching considerably. A vendor advisory or fix has been published. Record sourced from NVD.

References

github.com
github.com
github.com
github.com

Details

Severity HIGH
CVSS Score 7.8
CVSS Vector CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CWE CWE-427
Public Exploit ⚠️ Yes
Source NVD
Published 2026-07-02
Updated 2026-08-11
Modified 2026-07-08

Affected Packages

Software From version Fixed in
notepad3 — 6.25.822.1

Similar Threats

Exploit Protection

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CVE-2026-38972 carries CVSS 7.8 High rating and a public exploit already exists. BotEraser checks your installation against this and other known CVE records, and blocks IPs associated with exploit activity.

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