Microsoft fixes Notepad flaw that could trick users into clicking malicious Markdown links
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Microsoft fixes Notepad flaw that could trick users into clicking malicious Markdown links

M
Marc KevinAuthor
February 12, 2026

Microsoft has fixed a serious security vulnerability affecting Markdown files in Notepad. In the company's Tuesday patch notes, Microsoft says a bad actor could carry out a remote code execution attack by tricking users "into clicking a malicious link inside a Markdown file opened in Notepad," as re

Microsoft fixes Notepad flaw that could trick users into clicking malicious Markdown links
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Microsoft has fixed a serious security vulnerability affecting Markdown files in Notepad. In the company's Tuesday patch notes, Microsoft says a bad actor could carry out a remote code execution attack by tricking users "into clicking a malicious link inside a Markdown file opened in Notepad," as reported earlier by The Register.

Clicking the link would "launch unverified protocols," allowing attackers to remotely load and execute malicious files on a victim's computer, according to the patch notes. Microsoft says there isn't any evidence of attackers exploiting the Notepad vulnerability (CVE-2026-20841) in the wild, but it issued a fix for …

Read the full story at The Verge.

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Originally published at The Verge

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