CVE-2004-0963
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 · uneditedBuffer overflow in Microsoft Word 2002 (10.6612.6714) SP3, and possibly other versions, allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (application exception) and possibly execute arbitrary code in winword.exe via certain unexpected values in a .doc file, including (1) an offset that triggers an out-of-bounds memory access, (2) a certain value that causes a large memory copy as triggered by an integer conversion error, and other values.
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 confidenceBuffer overflow vulnerability in Microsoft Word 2002 (version 10.6612.6714) SP3 and possibly other versions. Attackers can craft malicious .doc files with unexpected values that trigger out-of-bounds memory access or cause large memory copies via integer conversion errors, leading to denial of service or potentially arbitrary code execution in winword.exe.
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= 2002CVSS 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
- Complete
- Integrity
- Complete
- Availability
- Complete
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C
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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Verify Microsoft Word 2002 is installedOpen Word and go to Help > About Microsoft Word, or check Add/Remove Programs for Microsoft Office Professional 2002Affected if Word 2002 is present on the system
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Check installed Word version numberIn Word, click Help > About Microsoft Word to view the version displayed in the dialog (e.g., 10.6612.6714)Affected if The displayed version is 10.6612.6714
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Confirm the Service Pack levelCheck if Service Pack 3 is installed via Help > About dialog or Windows Update historyAffected if SP3 is installed on Word 2002
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Determine if Word processes .doc filesThe vulnerability is triggered when Word opens specially crafted .doc files - check if .doc file association is enabled in WordAffected if Word can open and process .doc documents
A user is affected if Microsoft Word 2002 version 10.6612.6714 SP3 (or any Word 2002 version) is installed and can open .doc files, as the buffer overflow occurs during .doc file parsing.
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 dataApply Microsoft security updates/patches for this vulnerability. Until patched, exercise extreme caution with .doc files from untrusted sources and consider using email filtering or sandboxing for attachments.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation1.0 h
- Testing1.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,456.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2004-0963 — 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-2004-0963 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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A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.
- 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