Vulnerability · Published Aug 17, 2026 · Assigned by GitHub_M

CVE-2026-71858Notepad++: shortcuts.xml Macro HMAC Bypass Enables Conditional Elevated Command Execution

Medium 5.4

In plain English

A medium-severity OS command injection in notepad-plus-plus from notepad-plus-plus. Proof-of-concept exploit code is public. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 0.1% (higher than 2% of all known vulnerabilities).

Severity (CVSS 4.0)5.4Medium

Exploit odds (30 days)0.1%top 98.1% of all CVEs

Exploited in the wildNo reportsCISA SSVC: poc

Attack toolingNoneno public tooling known

Official description

Notepad++ is a free and open-source source code editor. Prior to 8.9.7, macros loaded from an attacker-controlled shortcuts.xml bypass the HMAC validation applied to UserDefinedCommands and can invoke Scintilla actions and the internal Open in Default Viewer command in an elevated Notepad++ process, allowing protected file modification and conditional elevated command execution when a local attacker influences settingsDir and a user triggers the macro. This issue is fixed in version 8.9.7.

Affected products (as reported)

Vendor	Product	Versions
notepad-plus-plus	notepad-plus-plus	< 8.9.7

Weakness: CWE-78, CWE-345, CWE-693 · Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:H/AT:P/PR:L/UI:P/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-f4rj-vqq4-wvg4 x_refsource_CONFIRM
https://github.com/notepad-plus-plus/notepad-plus-plus/commit/7686e5a3025eaf1fb8e024c2ceb54670ea05f5fb x_refsource_MISC
https://github.com/notepad-plus-plus/notepad-plus-plus/releases/tag/v8.9.7 x_refsource_MISC