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Notepad++ 8.9.6.2 < 8.9.6.4 TOCTOU Race Condition (CVE-2026-52885)

high Nessus Plugin ID 324931

Synopsis

A text editor on the remote Windows host is affected by a TOCTOU race condition vulnerability.

Description

The version of Notepad++ installed on the remote host is 8.9.6.2 or 8.9.6.3. It is, therefore, affected by a TOCTOU race condition vulnerability:

 - A time-of-check time-of-use (TOCTOU) race condition exists in the HMAC verification of shortcuts.xml. The HMAC check validates the on-disk file at execution time, but the command payload is loaded from memory at application startup. An attacker with write access to shortcuts.xml can swap in a malicious file before launch and restore the legitimate file before execution, bypassing the HMAC integrity check while the malicious payload runs from memory. (CVE-2026-52885)

Note that Nessus has not tested for this issue but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

Solution

Upgrade to Notepad++ version 8.9.6.4 or later.

See Also

http://www.nessus.org/u?52c4a326

Plugin Details

Severity: High

ID: 324931

File Name: notepad_plus_plus_CVE-2026-52885.nasl

Version: 1.3

Type: Local

Agent: windows

Family: Windows

Published: 7/3/2026

Updated: 7/6/2026

Configuration: Enable thorough checks (optional)

Supported Sensors: Nessus Agent, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 6.3

Percentile: 96.77

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 5.5

Temporal Score: 4.3

Vector: CVSS2#AV:L/AC:H/Au:S/C:N/I:C/A:C

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2026-52885

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 6.3

Temporal Score: 5.7

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

Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:P/RL:O/RC:C

CVSS v4

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7.5

Threat Score: 6.6

Threat Vector: CVSS:4.0/E:P

Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:H/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

Vulnerability Information

CPE: cpe:/a:notepad-plus-plus:notepad%5c%2b%5c%2b

Required KB Items: installed_sw/Notepad++, SMB/Registry/Enumerated

Exploit Available: true

Exploit Ease: Exploits are available

Patch Publication Date: 6/4/2026

Vulnerability Publication Date: 6/4/2026

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2026-52885

IAVA: 2026-A-0635