# CVE-2024-45306: heap-buffer-overflow in Vim

> An attacker can cause a heap-buffer-overflow and crash Vim by triggering an invalid cursor position, requiring users to upgrade to the patched version.

- **Severity:** Medium 4.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** A user has to click or open something
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 2 Sep 2024
- **Updated:** 4 Oct 2024
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2024-45306, DEBIAN-CVE-2024-45306, GHSA-wxf9-c5gx-qrwr

## What is CVE-2024-45306?

CVE-2024-45306 is a medium-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Vim Vim, published on 2 Sep 2024. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.

### Official description

Vim is an open source, command line text editor. Patch v9.1.0038 optimized how the cursor position is calculated and removed a loop, that verified that the cursor position always points inside a line and does not become invalid by pointing beyond the end of
a line. Back then we assumed this loop is unnecessary. However, this change made it possible that the cursor position stays invalid and points beyond the end of a line, which would eventually cause a heap-buffer-overflow when trying to access the line pointer at
the specified cursor position. It's not quite clear yet, what can lead to this situation that the cursor points to an invalid position. That's why patch v9.1.0707 does not include a test case. The only observed impact has been a program crash. This issue has been addressed in with the patch v9.1.0707. All users are advised to upgrade.

Weakness: CWE-787 (Out-of-bounds Write), CWE-122 (Heap-based Buffer Overflow)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-45306?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Vim Vim.

## How do I fix CVE-2024-45306?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2024-45306 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-45306 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Vim Vim

- [CVE-2020-20703](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-20703/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2017-6349](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-6349/): Integer overflow in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2017-6350](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-6350/): Integer overflow in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2017-5953](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-5953/): Integer overflow in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2008-3075](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2008-3075/): Command injection in n/a (critical 9.3)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2024-45306 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2024-45306 is a medium-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Vim Vim, published on 2 Sep 2024. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-45306 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Vim Vim. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-45306/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-45306/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2024-45306
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-45306
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2024-45306

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-45306/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.