CVE-2006-3875
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 Excel 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004 for Mac, v.X for Mac, and Excel Viewer 2003 allows user-assisted attackers to execute arbitrary code via a crafted COLINFO record in an XLS file, a different vulnerability than CVE-2006-2387 and CVE-2006-3867.
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 confidenceThis is a memory corruption vulnerability in Microsoft Excel where parsing a specially crafted COLINFO record in an XLS file can lead to arbitrary code execution. The attack requires user-assisted interaction (persuading the victim to open a malicious XLS file). The vulnerability affects multiple Excel versions from 2000 through 2004 for Mac and Excel Viewer 2003.
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= 2002= 2003= 2004= x= 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
- High
- Authentication
- None
- Confidentiality
- Partial
- Integrity
- Partial
- Availability
- Partial
AV:N/AC:H/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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Identify the installed Microsoft Excel versionOpen Excel and navigate to Help > About Microsoft Excel, or check the program version through the executable properties (right-click on EXCEL.EXE and select Properties > Details).Affected if The version is Excel 2000, Excel 2002, Excel 2003, or Excel 2004 for Mac.
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Check for Microsoft Excel Viewer 2003Verify if Microsoft Excel Viewer 2003 is installed on the system through Add/Remove Programs or by locating the XLVIEW.EXE executable.Affected if Excel Viewer 2003 is installed.
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Confirm whether security update MS06-037 is appliedCheck Add/Remove Programs (Programs and Features in newer Windows) for the MS06-037 security update, or use the Windows Update history to verify the update was installed.Affected if The system has Excel 2000/2002/2003/2004 (Mac) or Excel Viewer 2003 installed AND MS06-037 is NOT present.
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Verify the attack vector exposureDetermine if users on the system have the ability to open XLS files from external or untrusted sources, such as email attachments or downloaded files.Affected if Users can open XLS files without additional filtering or validation controls in place.
A system is affected if it runs any of the vulnerable Excel versions (2000, 2002, 2003, 2004 for Mac, or Excel Viewer 2003) without the MS06-037 security update applied, and users can open XLS files from external 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.
From vendor dataApply the Microsoft security updates released in 2006 for this vulnerability (MS06-037) or upgrade to unsupported versions of Office. Users should be trained to avoid opening XLS files from untrusted sources, and organizations can implement email/attachment filtering to block suspicious Excel files.
- Consultation1.0 h
- Implementation1.0 h
- Testing1.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2006-3875 — 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-2006-3875 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
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