Vulnerability · Published Jun 26, 2026 · Assigned by GitHub_M

CVE-2026-46710Notepad++: Privilege Escalation in the Installer via Uncontrolled Executable Search Path

High 7.5

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 0.2% (higher than 4% of all known vulnerabilities).

Severity (CVSS 4.0)7.5High

Exploit odds (30 days)0.2%top 95.6% 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. From 8.9.4 until 8.9.6, Notepad++ contains a local privilege escalation vulnerability in the installer. During installation, the installer invokes powershell.exe without using an absolute path after setting the working directory to the installation contextMenu directory. If an attacker can pre-place a malicious powershell.exe in a user-writable custom installation directory, and a privileged user later runs the installer and selects that directory, the attacker-controlled executable is launched with the elevated privileges of the installer. This vulnerability is fixed in 8.9.6.

Affected products (as reported)

Vendor	Product	Versions
notepad-plus-plus	notepad-plus-plus	>= 8.9.4, < 8.9.6

Weakness: CWE-426 · 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

References

https://github.com/notepad-plus-plus/notepad-plus-plus/security/advisories/GHSA-6f8f-vmfc-r8c5 x_refsource_CONFIRM
https://github.com/notepad-plus-plus/notepad-plus-plus/commit/1d4aabe2102d982667ead2dd974bee5e0b1f2d9c x_refsource_MISC