Vulnerability in Notepad (CVE-2026-46710)
Summary
Vulnerability in Notepad (CVE-2026-46710). Successful exploitation can lead to full system takeover. Mitigation: upgrade to 8.9.6 or later.
Original description
The description as published by the source.
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.
Source: NIST National Vulnerability Database NVD GitHub Advisory
Auto-generated summary
Assembled by SecPulse from the source data (CVSS, CWE, affected versions) using templates — no AI involved. Check the original description and references below for exact details.
A vulnerability tracked as CVE-2026-46710 has been found in Notepad.
Successful exploitation can lead to full system takeover. CVSS score: 7.8/10.
What to do: upgrade Notepad to 8.9.6 or later.
If unsure, ask your IT team or search "Notepad CVE-2026-46710" on the vendor's site.
CVE-2026-46710 (Notepad) — CWE-426 / CVSS v3 7.8
Attack vector: local / unauthenticated
Patched: 8.9.6 — apply immediately
Plan: 1) Audit SBOM/dependencies, 2) Stage→prod upgrade, 3) Add WAF/proxy monitoring on affected endpoints, 4) Hunt IOCs in logs.
Refs: see the GHSA / vendor advisory / patched release linked on this page.
A vulnerability (CWE-426) exists in Notepad.
Check the vendor advisory for the affected versions of Notepad.
Severity: High (CVSS 7.8/10). Successful exploitation can lead to full system takeover.
Update to 8.9.6.
Until the patch is applied: disable the affected feature, apply WAF rules, or restrict access via network ACLs.
Search webserver/proxy logs for unusual request patterns matching this CVE's known IOCs. Run grep -r 'Notepad' . against your dependency files (package-lock.json, requirements.txt, go.sum) to find affected services.
Response actions
Concrete steps and command examples for SOC/SRE teams to execute in order
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1Identify exposure identify
grep -r 'Notepad' . | grep -v node_modulesリポジトリと本番環境の依存ファイル (package-lock.json / requirements.txt / go.sum / Gemfile.lock 等) で
Notepadを grep し、稼働しているサービス・バージョンを把握する。 -
2Apply patch patch
Upgrade Notepad to 8.9.6ステージング環境で 8.9.6 に上げて回帰テスト → 本番反映。回帰テストはアプリの主要ハッピーパスを含めること。
-
3Post-deployment verification verify
Confirm patched version is live in productionパッチ適用後、ステージングで PoC または同等の悪用パターンを再現して脆弱性が閉じたことを確認。本番ではアクセスログ・WAF でアラート再発が無いか継続監視。
References
- advisory github.com
- advisory github.com
- advisory nvd.nist.gov
- patch github.com