CVE-2004-2482
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 Outlook 2000 and 2003, when configured to use Microsoft Word 2000 or 2003 as the e-mail editor and when forwarding e-mail, does not properly handle an opening OBJECT tag that does not have a closing OBJECT tag, which causes Outlook to automatically download the URI in the data property of the OBJECT tag and might allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary code.
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 · moderate confidenceIn Outlook 2000/2003 configured to use Word as the email editor, forwarding emails containing malformed HTML with an opening OBJECT tag but no closing OBJECT tag causes Outlook to automatically retrieve and execute content from the URI specified in the data property. This silent automatic download and execution could allow remote attackers to run arbitrary code on the victim's machine.
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= 2003CVSS 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
- None
- Integrity
- Partial
- Availability
- None
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:N
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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Determine Outlook versionOpen Outlook, go to Help > About Microsoft Outlook, or check Add/Remove Programs for installed Microsoft Office components to confirm version is 2000 or 2003Affected if Version is exactly 2000 or exactly 2003
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Verify Word is the email editorIn Outlook, go to Tools > Options > Mail Format tab, or Tools > Options > General tab (depending on version), and check if 'Use Microsoft Word to edit e-mail messages' is enabledAffected if Word is selected as the email editor in Outlook settings
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Identify email processing behaviorThe vulnerability triggers when forwarding or processing emails containing malformed HTML with an opening OBJECT tag but no closing OBJECT tag - inspect email headers or raw source of suspicious forwarded messagesAffected if Emails containing incomplete OBJECT tags are being processed through Outlook with Word as the email editor
A user is affected if they run Outlook 2000 or 2003 with Word configured as the email editor and receive or forward emails containing malformed OBJECT tags in HTML.
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 Microsoft Word as the email editor in Outlook, or apply available Microsoft security updates for affected Outlook/Word versions. Consider deploying email gateway filtering to block emails containing suspicious OBJECT tags.
- Consultation1.0 h
- Implementation1.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2004-2482 — 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-2004-2482 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
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