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Windows Notepad App Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

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Re: Windows Notepad App Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

#441

Post by layer8 »

layer8 wrote: post #430
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

Windows 11 still includes the old notepad.exe in its Windows directory [0]. Windows just “helpfully” redirects it to the new app if you try to run it. You have to turn that off in Settings under “App execution aliases”. Then you get the old Notepad. [0] In the unlikely case that it isn’t there, you can add it through System > Optional Features > Add an optional feature.

Also, delete the key NoOpenWith under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Classes\Applications\notepad.exe to enable file associations.

Re: Windows Notepad App Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

#442

Post by hbn »

DavidPeiffer wrote: post #385
BLKNSLVR wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It is to do with link handling: Notepad? Link handling? That's like my pencil having a CVE that's to do with how it loads the ink. That old saying about 'if Microsoft built a car' is more true now than it was then: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/car-balk/

I was really hoping this CVE would have been caused by the Copilot integration into Notepad. Calculator hasn't been infiltrated by Copilot yet, but I'm sure the day is coming.

Calculator asks you to rate it in the app store...

You're the preinstalled calculator!! You don't have to compete with other apps!!

Re: Windows Notepad App Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

#444

Post by lofaszvanitt »

Fiveplus wrote: post #14

We have officially reached the logical conclusion of the feature-bloat-to-vulnerability pipeline. 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. An 8.8 CVSS on a utility meant for viewing data is a fundamental failure of the principle of least privilege. At some point, they need to stop aski…

Now imagine that there are people who want to embed video players and image viewing in the terminal :D.

Re: Windows Notepad App Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

#445

Post by d3Xt3r »

SoKamil wrote: post #178
SomeUserName432 wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find notepad useful for sanitising clipboard content. No bold text, italics, bullet points, invisible html.. Just get the text and can copy it to paste again somewhere else. Ala Cmd+Shift+V on Mac

I always used browser address bar for that. But giving it a second thought, I uploaded the data to Google servers.

I use the Run dialog (Win+R) for this.

Re: Windows Notepad App Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

#446

Post by d3Xt3r »

hsbauauvhabzb wrote: post #189
SomeUserName432 wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find notepad useful for sanitising clipboard content. No bold text, italics, bullet points, invisible html.. Just get the text and can copy it to paste again somewhere else. Ala Cmd+Shift+V on Mac

Win+r, ctrl+v, ctrl+a, ctrl+x, esc does this without spawning a non ephemeral window

Unfortunately this has a 260 character limit.

Re: Windows Notepad App Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

#447

Post by lunar_rover »

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?

Canonical and Red Hat have been modernising things for a long time, albeit slowly. Most funds went into server components.

As for the desktop community… Well, it has a severe lack of professionals.

Re: Windows Notepad App Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

#448

Post by procaryote »

Hackbraten wrote: post #191
BLKNSLVR wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It is to do with link handling: Notepad? Link handling? That's like my pencil having a CVE that's to do with how it loads the ink. That old saying about 'if Microsoft built a car' is more true now than it was then: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/car-balk/

Unpopular opinion: rudimentary Markdown support is not entirely far-fetched even for a dumb text editor. Even though I’m all against feature bloat, I think that making Markdown hyperlinks clickable is still within the Overton window of what a simple editor should be doing.

Markdown is readable as plain text, that's kind of the point of it

There's also a pretty large jump between "I can ask the system to open this link in the default browser" and "I have built my own link handling in a memory-unsafe language to support some really fringe features, and oops it's exploitable"

Re: Windows Notepad App Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

#449

Post by gradientsrneat »

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…

That was a CCP group compromising the Notepad++'s underlying hosting provider; not really much to be done there aside from switching hosting providers. The update validation was also improved, and there's also scoop if you don't trust the built-in updater. Fortunately the attack was narrowly targeted and the IOCs are known.

Re: Windows Notepad App Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

#450

Post by BLKNSLVR »

graemep wrote: post #260
mjmas wrote: post #134

It is to do with link handling: https://msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/vulnerability/CVE-20... > An attacker could trick a user into clicking a malicious link inside a Markdown file opened in Notepad, causing the application to launch unverified protocols that load and execute remote files.

Is this a big deal? is it also not a problem with anything that renders clickable links? Browsers, email clients, whatever. Is this not a problem with anything that offers a preview of markdown (or HTML, or anything with embedded links)?

Just imagine all the problems that wouldn't have occurred of email remained text only!
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