Notepad++ Privilege Escalation in Installer via Uncontrolled Executable Search Path
Severity and exploitation
KEV coverage does not rule out exploitation.
Assessment vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:HSeverity
high7.3CVSS measures technical severity, not the likelihood of an attack.
Known exploitation
Not listed in the checked CISA KEV catalog
Absence from CISA KEV does not rule out attacks.
Public exploit
Not established by this record
Missing evidence does not mean no public exploit exists.
Remediation
Fix status not established
No structured fix or guidance is available here. Check the latest publisher advisory.
What this means
Notepad++ versions 8.8.1 and prior have a privilege escalation vulnerability in the installer, allowing unprivileged users to gain SYSTEM-level privileges through insecure executable search paths. An attacker with access to the victim's system could exploit this. The issue is fixed in version 8.8.2.
Summarized by @cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast. Verify details against the original sources.Attack conditions
No attack-condition excerpt has been identified here. Review the full source description and references for authentication, network access, and configuration requirements.
Review supporting sources →Affected versions
Check the exact model, release, and any platform requirements against your installation.
notepad-plus-plus · GitHub_M
notepad-plus-plus
1 range
notepad-plus-plus · GitHub_M
notepad-plus-plus
Compare with this publisher’s ranges. This does not inspect your installation.
affected
< 8.8.2
Other versions: unknown
What to do
Compare your installed product and version with the affected versions above. A matching product name alone does not confirm exposure.
No structured fix or remediation guidance is available here. Check the full source description and vendor’s latest advisory for a patch or workaround; do not assume another version is safe.
cve.new guidance unless attributed to a publisher. This page does not inspect your installation.
Public exploit evidence
No public exploit reference is identified in the imported evidence. This is not a claim that no exploit exists.
Original source description
Read the full publisher description
Notepad++ is a free and open-source source code editor. In versions 8.8.1 and prior, a privilege escalation vulnerability exists in the Notepad++ v8.8.1 installer that allows unprivileged users to gain SYSTEM-level privileges through insecure executable search paths. An attacker could use social engineering or clickjacking to trick users into downloading both the legitimate installer and a malicious executable to the same directory (typically Downloads folder - which is known as Vulnerable directory). Upon running the installer, the attack executes automatically with SYSTEM privileges. This issue has been fixed and will be released in version 8.8.2.
References
7 sourcesInside the record
Evidence available
Describes the evidence in this view, not whether the product is safe.
Original records
CVE-2025-49144View the latest unmodified CVE JSON from the official source. It may be newer than this imported page.
cve.new JSON →Underlying weaknesses
The source’s classification of what caused the vulnerability.
Contributing organizations · 3
Assigning organization
Additional data publisher
Additional data publisher
Timeline
All times UTCAdvisory published
Publication date supplied by the source.
Source updated
Latest modification date supplied by the source.
Last imported by cve.new
Latest catalog import, not the date we first saw this advisory.
What changed
Follow changesLarge field values are marked as truncated previews. Original source snapshots remain retained.