Vulnerability · Published Feb 18, 2026 · Assigned by GitHub_M

CVE-2026-25926Notepad++ has an Untrusted Search Path

High 7.3

In plain English

A high-severity security flaw in notepad-plus-plus from notepad-plus-plus. There are no confirmed reports of exploitation so far. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 0.3% (higher than 20% of all known vulnerabilities).

Severity (CVSS 3.1)7.3High

Exploit odds (30 days)0.3%top 80.2% of all CVEs

Exploited in the wildNo reportsCISA SSVC: none

Attack toolingNoneno public tooling known

Official description

Notepad++ is a free and open-source source code editor. An Unsafe Search Path vulnerability (CWE-426) exists in versions prior to 8.9.2 when launching Windows Explorer without an absolute executable path. This may allow execution of a malicious explorer.exe if an attacker can control the process working directory. Under certain conditions, this could lead to arbitrary code execution in the context of the running application. Version 8.9.2 patches the issue.

Affected products (as reported)

Vendor	Product	Versions
notepad-plus-plus	notepad-plus-plus	< 8.9.2

Weakness: CWE-426 · Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

References

https://github.com/notepad-plus-plus/notepad-plus-plus/security/advisories/GHSA-rjvm-fcxw-2jxq x_refsource_CONFIRM
https://github.com/notepad-plus-plus/notepad-plus-plus/releases/tag/v8.9.2 x_refsource_MISC
https://notepad-plus-plus.org/news/v892-released x_refsource_MISC