CVE-2000-0597
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedMicrosoft Office 2000 (Excel and PowerPoint) and PowerPoint 97 are marked as safe for scripting, which allows remote attackers to force Internet Explorer or some email clients to save files to arbitrary locations via the Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) SaveAs function, aka the "Office HTML Script" vulnerability.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · high confidenceMicrosoft Office 2000 (Excel and PowerPoint) and PowerPoint 97 are incorrectly marked as 'safe for scripting', allowing remote attackers to exploit the Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) SaveAs function through HTML scripts in Internet Explorer or email clients to save files to arbitrary locations on the victim's system.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data= 2000= 97= 2000CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Authentication
- None
- Confidentiality
- Partial
- Integrity
- Partial
- Availability
- Partial
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Check installed Excel versionOpen Excel, go to Help > About Microsoft Excel, or check the file version of EXCEL.EXE in the Office installation directory (typically C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\ for Office 2000)Affected if Version is exactly 9.0 (Office 2000/Excel 2000)
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Check installed PowerPoint versionOpen PowerPoint, go to Help > About Microsoft PowerPoint, or check the file version of POWERPNT.EXE in the Office installation directoryAffected if Version is exactly 8.0 (PowerPoint 97) or 9.0 (PowerPoint 2000)
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Verify Office 2000 installationCheck registry key HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Office\9.0\Common\InstallRoot to confirm Office 2000 is installedAffected if This registry key exists and points to a valid Office 2000 installation path
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Check if ActiveX scripting is enabled in Internet ExplorerIn Internet Explorer, go to Tools > Internet Options > Security > Custom Level, and verify the 'Enable' settings for 'Script ActiveX controls marked safe for scripting'Affected if ActiveX controls marked safe for scripting is set to Enable or Prompt
You are affected if Excel 2000 or PowerPoint 97/2000 is installed AND ActiveX scripting is enabled in Internet Explorer or your email client, allowing HTML content to execute VBA scripts.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataDisable ActiveX scripting and active content execution for Office applications in Internet Explorer and email clients, or migrate away from these legacy Office versions as they are no longer supported. Microsoft released security patches for this vulnerability that should be applied if the software must remain in use.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2000-0597 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2000-0597 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
- No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data