Skip to content
OpenAdvisories
High · 7.3 Public exploit CVE-2025-49144 EUVD-2025-19601

Notepad++ Privilege Escalation in Installer via Uncontrolled Executable Search Path

Published Jun 23, 2025 · Updated Nov 3, 2026 · Assigned by GitHub_M

Vendor: notepad-plus-plus Product: notepad-plus-plus

Description

Notepad++ is a free and open-source source code editor. In versions 8.8.1 and prior, a privilege escalation vulnerability exists in the Notepad++ v8.8.1 installer that allows unprivileged users to gain SYSTEM-level privileges through insecure executable search paths. An attacker could use social engineering or clickjacking to trick users into downloading both the legitimate installer and a malicious executable to the same directory (typically Downloads folder - which is known as Vulnerable directory). Upon running the installer, the attack executes automatically with SYSTEM privileges. This issue has been fixed and will be released in version 8.8.2.

Affected products

VendorProductAffectedFixed
notepad-plus-plus notepad-plus-plus < 8.8.2 —

Public exploits

Exploit or proof-of-concept code for this vulnerability is publicly available, which lowers the bar for attackers. Treat it as a reason to patch sooner.

Third-party code, not reviewed by us. Public PoCs are sometimes fake or contain malware. Read the code first and run it only in an isolated lab, against systems you are authorised to test.

GitHub 8 repositories

Sources: PoC-in-GitHub, Metasploit Framework, Exploit-DB — updated daily. Only links are listed; no exploit code is hosted here.

Advisories 1

References