CVE-2006-3651
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 · uneditedUnspecified vulnerability in Microsoft Word 2000, 2002, and Office 2003 allows remote user-assisted attackers to execute arbitrary code via a crafted mail merge file, a different vulnerability than CVE-2006-3647 and CVE-2006-4693.
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 confidenceA remote code execution vulnerability in Microsoft Word 2000, 2002, and Office 2003 allows attackers to execute arbitrary code through specially crafted mail merge files. The attack is user-assisted, requiring the victim to open a malicious file.
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= 2003= 2000= 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
- M
- Authentication
- None
- Confidentiality
- Complete
- Integrity
- Complete
- Availability
- Complete
AV:N/AC:M/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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Identify installed Microsoft Word or Office versionOpen Word, go to Help > About Microsoft Word, or check Add/Remove Programs for installed Office components. Alternatively, check the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\version\Word\InstallRoot for the installed version.Affected if The version is 2000, 2002, or 2003 (Office 2003)
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Confirm mail merge functionality is presentIn Word, verify that the Mail Merge toolbar is available or that Insert > Mail Merge is accessible. This feature is included by default in these Office versions.Affected if Mail merge features are available and enabled in the installation
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Verify file association for mail merge documentsCheck if .doc files can be opened and if the application handles embedded OLE objects or data sources from external mail merge data files.Affected if Word is configured to open mail merge documents with attached data sources without warnings
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Check for user awareness of file opening risksDetermine whether users in the environment routinely open untrusted or unexpected mail merge files from external sources.Affected if Users are likely to open malicious mail merge files from untrusted sources
The environment is affected if Microsoft Word 2000, 2002, or Office 2003 is installed and users may open mail merge files from untrusted sources.
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.
dbcve · scopedUsers should not open untrusted or unexpected mail merge files, and organizations should upgrade from these deprecated Office versions to supported versions that receive security updates.
Microsoft Office 2007 or later (Office 2003 reached end of support in 2014)
- Identify all systems running Microsoft Word 2000, Word 2002, or Office 2003 in the environment
- Back up any critical documents stored on affected systems
- Upgrade Microsoft Office to a currently supported version (Office 2007 or later)
- Verify that the mail merge functionality works correctly in the new version
- Ensure antivirus/anti-malware software is up to date on all upgraded systems
- Document the upgrade for compliance and audit purposes
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing2.0 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 $2,560.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2006-3651 — 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-2006-3651 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