High (8.6). EPSS 0.2% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days.
Notepad++ is a free and open-source source code editor. Prior to 8.9.8, Notepad++ contains a stack buffer overflow in PluginsManager::loadPluginFromPath in PowerEditor/src/MISC/PluginsManager/PluginsManager.cpp because the plugin-supplied GetLexerCount() result controls a loop that writes to containers[30] without enforcing NB_MAX_EXTERNAL_LANG. A malicious or compromised plugin that reports more than 30 lexers can write beyond the stack array and corrupt control data, which can permit arbitrary code execution in the Notepad++ process context. This issue is fixed in version 8.9.8.
Severity
CVSS 3.1
8.6 high
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS
0.2% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days; higher than 13% of CVEs (scores of 2026-10-31)