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Windows Notepad App Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

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Re: Windows Notepad App Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

#211

Post by b3lvedere »

mdavid626 wrote: post #31
voidUpdate wrote: post #26

I found a copy of the win98 (I believe) notepad.exe a while back, and it works perfectly on windows 11 (though the "about notepad" dialog shows the windows 11 version for some reason??). I can write text into it, save it, and load text again. What more does notepad need? And it has a very nostalgic font too

I extracted out notepad.exe, calc.exe and mspaint.exe from Windows 7. I use them on Windows 11. They work perfectly.

Kind of a weird feeling that in order to get the better Windows 11 experience one requires programs from four operating system versions earlier.

Windows 11 also takes a huge amount of time to get working as i intend. I have to remove a lot of 'features' and heavily optimize some processes. It's stable and it works, but i'm getting more and more annoyed by it that upcoming updates sometimes destroy all my effort.

Kinda wish i could run everything my family wants on Debian. I know i could do that right now, but the wife and kids will never get used to that if they have to use Microsoft products in their working and school life.

Re: Windows Notepad App Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

#212

Post by karel-3d »

r2vcap wrote: post #37

A few days ago, Notepad++ got compromised—apparently by a state actor (or a proxy). And now, today, Windows’ built-in Notepad has a fresh CVE. What a life. At this point, what am I supposed to do other than uninstall Windows completely? No real sandboxing, a mountain of legacy…

Visual Studio Code was not compromised.

Re: Windows Notepad App Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

#213

Post by tomNth »

phatfish wrote: post #127
core1024 wrote: post #115

It looks like, after Microsoft discontinued WordPad, they want to implement more features into Notepad. If you want simple plain text editor you have to use msedit[1]. [1] https://github.com/microsoft/edit

You can still open the real notepad, you just have to turn off a "feature" that makes running notepad.exe open the new notepad. Its called "execution alias" or something like that.

I just use the winxp wordpad.exe. (and calc paint notepad, and I use paint shop pro 4.12)

Re: Windows Notepad App Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

#214

Post by MarleTangible »

usrbinbash wrote: post #184
weinzierl wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"For nearly thirty years, notepad.exe was the gold standard for a "dumb" utility which was a simple, win32-backed buffer for strings that did exactly one thing...display text." Well, except that this did not prevent it from having embarrassing bugs. Google "Bush hid the facts" for an example. I'm serious, you won't be disappointed. I think complexity is relative. At the time of the "Bush hid the facts" bug, nailing d…

As funny as the "Bush hid the facts" bug may be, there is a world of difference between an embarassing mistake by a function that guesses the text encoding wrong, and a goddamn remote code execution with an 8.8 score > and we have other battles we fight. Except no, we don't. notepad.exe was DONE SOFTWARE. It was feature complete. It didn't have to change. This is not a battle that needed fighting, this was hitting a…

They also wanted to use the popularity of Notepad, so they replaced it with an AI bloatware version instead of creating a new app with extra features.

Re: Windows Notepad App Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

#215

Post by keepamovin »

usrbinbash wrote: post #187
keepamovin wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I couldn't agree more. A text editor exposing an attack surface via a network stack is precisely the kind of bloat that makes modern computing ultra-fragile. I actually built a "dumb" alternative in Rust last week specifically to escape this. It’s a local-only binary—no network permissions, encrypted at rest, and uses FIPS-compliant bindings (OpenSSL) just to keep the crypto boring and standard. It’s inspectable if y…

Why does my text-editor need to do "encryption at rest"? If I want data encrypted, I store it in an encrypted drive with a transparent en/decryption layer.

That is completely valid for personal threat models, I rely on LUKS/BitLocker for my daily driver too.

The specific gap this fills is 'Defense in Depth' + compliance. OS-level encryption (like FDE) is transparent once you log in. If you walk away from an unlocked machine, FDE does nothing.

App-level encryption, however, ensures the specific sensitive notes remain encrypted on disk even while the OS is running and the user is authenticated.

It's also portable as it allows the encrypted blob to be moved across untrusted transports (email, USB, cloud) without needing to set up an encrypted container/volume on the destination.

For FIPS/NIST workflows, relying solely on the OS often isn't enough for the auditor; having the application control the keys explicitly satisfies the 'data protection' control regardless of the underlying storage medium.

Re: Windows Notepad App Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

#216

Post by [deleted] »

TZubiri wrote: post #145
nananana9 wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Fine" Why does every Linux distro under the sun try so hard to protect the garbage under /usr/bin/ and /etc/ when literally the only files that matter to me are in /home, which is a free-for-all?

>Why does every Linux distro under the sun try so hard to protect the garbage under /usr/bin/ and /etc Because a compromised user could infect shared executables and spread the infection. A bit harder to do with etc but for sure possible. The main target would be infecting bash and you are done from the get go. >when literally the only files that matter to me are in /home, which is a free-for-all? The home folder's r…

[deleted]

Re: Windows Notepad App Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

#217

Post by b3lvedere »

gchamonlive wrote: post #161
voidUpdate wrote: post #26

I found a copy of the win98 (I believe) notepad.exe a while back, and it works perfectly on windows 11 (though the "about notepad" dialog shows the windows 11 version for some reason??). I can write text into it, save it, and load text again. What more does notepad need? And it has a very nostalgic font too

> What more does notepad need? AI! It needs AI. Did I guess it right?

Affermative. You have unlocked the following achievement: "Get a head start of 45 minutes when we start destroying humanity".

Re: Windows Notepad App Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

#218

Post by razighter777 »

nananana9 wrote: post #96
dgxyz wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well technically Unixes like Linux are a mountain of legacy and they are fine. Windows is just a mountain of shit.

"Fine" Why does every Linux distro under the sun try so hard to protect the garbage under /usr/bin/ and /etc/ when literally the only files that matter to me are in /home, which is a free-for-all?

Linux /home is far from a free for all. flatpak, landlock, selinux, podman, firejail, apparmor, and systemd sandboxing all exist and can and do apply additional restrictions under /home

Re: Windows Notepad App Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

#219

Post by MarleTangible »

dijit wrote: post #33
mwalser wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If I read it correctly (but could be mistaken), it runs with setuid root I am certain you are mistaken. I couldn't find anything that hints at notepad running with elevated privileges.

People very often run notepad as administrator (anything launched from administrative powershell instances will run like this). In fact, if you enabled developer mode on your computer there's a registry key that gets set to run notepad as admin, it's: `runas /savecred /user:PC-NAME\Administrator “notepad %1”` in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT-> * -> shell -> runas (new folder) -> (Default) And, if I'm not totally mistaken, notepa…

> Regardless, notepad is a very trusted application and is often run as Administrator.

Sorry to say this, but Notepad was a very trusted application now. I cannot believe that such a core utility has a 8.8 CVE, it sounds like a joke tbh.

Re: Windows Notepad App Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

#220

Post by dijit »

MarleTangible wrote: post #219
dijit wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People very often run notepad as administrator (anything launched from administrative powershell instances will run like this). In fact, if you enabled developer mode on your computer there's a registry key that gets set to run notepad as admin, it's: `runas /savecred /user:PC-NAME\Administrator “notepad %1”` in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT-> * -> shell -> runas (new folder) -> (Default) And, if I'm not totally mistaken, notepa…

> Regardless, notepad is a very trusted application and is often run as Administrator. Sorry to say this, but Notepad was a very trusted application now. I cannot believe that such a core utility has a 8.8 CVE, it sounds like a joke tbh.

A totally valid modification to the statement I made.

These are sad times.

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