Vulnerability report

Exploited in the wild Confirmed confidence In CISA KEV

CVE-2025-15556

Notepad++ < 8.8.9 WinGUp Updater Lacks Update Integrity Verification

notepad-plus-plus / notepad-plus-plus · affected before 8.8.9

Severity
CVSS 7.7 · High
Confidence
Confirmed
Exploit status
Exploited in the wild
EPSS
1.3%
First observed
Last observed

Decision summary

What security teams need to know first

Direct answers before the deeper technical record.

What it is

CVE-2025-15556 is an unauthenticated Notepad++ < 8.8.9 WinGUp Updater Lacks Update Integrity Verification affecting notepad-plus-plus notepad-plus-plus. Notepad++ versions prior to 8.8.9, when using the WinGUp...

Is it exploited?

Yes. KEV Intelligence tracks this CVE as a known exploited vulnerability. Confidence is confirmed.

Who is affected?

notepad-plus-plus / notepad-plus-plus affected before 8.8.9.

What should we do?

Prioritize remediation. Validate affected assets and apply vendor fixes on an accelerated timeline.

Overview

Notepad++ < 8.8.9 WinGUp Updater Lacks Update Integrity Verification

Notepad++ versions prior to 8.8.9, when using the WinGUp updater, contain an update integrity verification vulnerability where downloaded update metadata and installers are not cryptographically verified.

An attacker able to intercept or redirect update traffic can cause the updater to download and execute an attacker-controlled installer, resulting in arbitrary code execution with the privileges of the user.

Vendor Product Affected Status
notepad-plus-plus notepad-plus-plus Before 8.8.9 Affected
View vendor advisory (opens in new tab)
Published
03 Feb 2026
Exploitation Reported
01 Jun 2026
Attack vector
Remote
Complexity
High
Privileges
None
User interaction

Tags

cisa

CVE References

Exploitation evidence

Why KEV Intelligence marks this CVE as exploited

Third-party attestation and first-party sensor observation are shown separately so teams can judge the evidence chain.

Exploited in the wild

CVE

Recorded 01 Jun 2026

Independent exploitation attestation added to the KEV Intelligence record.

Known exploited vulnerability sources

Per-source evidence links for KEV attestations are available through the KEV Intelligence Pro API.

Learn about Pro API access
Source Added
CVE First 2026-06-01 10:50 UTC
CISA 2026-06-02 14:03 UTC

Detection

Operational artifacts and observed signals

Make the evidence actionable in scanner, SOC, and edge-control workflows.

Observed signals

Request targets
0
User-Agents
0

Raw values available in Pro and Enterprise.

Scanner coverage

No scanner integrations recorded yet.

Virtual patch status

No KEV Intelligence virtual patch is currently available. Future rules ship for ModSecurity, Cloudflare, and AWS WAF.

Learn about virtual patches →

No detection artifacts or sensor request patterns are available for this CVE yet.

Check back as sensor telemetry and scanner integrations are updated.

Risk and context

Severity, weaknesses, and research context

CVSS v4.0

7.7 High
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:H/AT:N/PR:N/UI:P/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

EPSS

1.3%

All CVSS Scores

CVSS v4.0 7.7 High

CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:H/AT:N/PR:N/UI:P/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

CVSS v3.1 7.5 High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Timeline

From disclosure to observed exploitation

  1. Added to CISA KEV

    Listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

  2. Added to KEV Intelligence KEV Feed

    High-confidence, third-party attested exploitation

  3. CVE published

    Vulnerability disclosed publicly

  4. CVE ID reserved

    Identifier reserved by the CNA

Pro API

Automate this intelligence

Confidence, exploit status, sensor telemetry, PoCs, scanner integrations, mentions, and tags are available programmatically for VM, SOC, and CTI workflows.

  • Evidence confidence and provenance
  • First-party sensor telemetry
  • PoC and scanner references
  • Affected versions and enrichment
  • Automation-ready JSON delivery

GET /api/v2/pro/kevs/CVE-2025-15556

Free JSON includes basic KEV fields
{
  "cve_id": "CVE-2025-15556",
  "confidence": "Confirmed",
  "cvss_score": 7.7,
  "cvss_estimated": false,
  "epss_score": 0.01268,
  "exploit_status": {
    "exploited_in_the_wild": true,
    "active_exploitation_observed": false
  },
  "sensor_telemetry": { "attempts": 0, "sensors": 0 }
}

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