VulnerabilityAnalyzed

CVE-2026-46710

From 8.9.4 until 8.9.6, Notepad++ contains a local privilege escalation vulnerability in the installer.

HIGH 7.5EPSS 0.15%

Does this matter?

High impact if exploited, but EPSS currently rates exploitation as unlikely (0.15%). Schedule it in the normal patch cycle and watch for a rise in EPSS or a public exploit.

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.

CVSS 4.0: 7.5 HIGHCVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:H/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/M
EPSS: 0.15% probability · 5th percentile
CISA KEV: Not listed
Weakness: CWE-426
Affected: notepad-plus-plus/notepad\+\+
Source: security-advisories@github.com

References

Source: NVD record, EPSS from FIRST.org, KEV from CISA. Refreshed daily.