CVE-2007-5861
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 Spotlight in Apple Mac OS X 10.4.11 allows user-assisted attackers to cause a denial of service (application termination) or execute arbitrary code via a crafted .XLS file that triggers memory corruption in the Microsoft Office Spotlight Importer.
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 confidenceMemory corruption vulnerability in the Microsoft Office Spotlight Importer on Mac OS X 10.4.11. Processing a specially crafted .XLS file triggers improper memory handling, leading to application crash (DoS) or potentially arbitrary code execution. The user-assisted attack requires the victim to open or index the 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= 10.4.11CVSS 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
- Partial
- Integrity
- Partial
- Availability
- Partial
AV:N/AC:M/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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Verify the Mac OS X versionRun 'sw_vers' or check System Profiler to confirm the exact version numberAffected if The system is running Mac OS X 10.4.11 specifically (any build of 10.4.11)
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Check if Microsoft Office is installedLook for Microsoft Office applications in /Applications or ~/Applications, or check for Office components in the systemAffected if Microsoft Office (any version that includes the Spotlight Importer) is installed on the system
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Locate the Microsoft Office Spotlight ImporterCheck for Spotlight importer plugins in /Library/Spotlight/ or ~/Library/Spotlight/ for files named 'Microsoft Office.mdimporter' or similarAffected if A Microsoft Office Spotlight Importer plugin (.mdimporter) exists in the Spotlight plug-in directories
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Confirm the Spotlight Importer is enabledCheck Spotlight preferences or run 'mdimport -l' to list active Spotlight importersAffected if The Microsoft Office Spotlight Importer appears in the list of enabled Spotlight importers
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Verify the attack vector pathDetermine if the system indexes or opens .XLS files (via Spotlight or manual opening)Affected if Users can trigger Spotlight indexing or open .XLS files from untrusted sources
The system is affected only if it is running Mac OS X 10.4.11 AND has the Microsoft Office Spotlight Importer installed and enabled, allowing specially crafted .XLS files to be processed.
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 dataUpgrade from Mac OS X 10.4.11 to a supported version; if upgrade is impossible, disable or remove the Microsoft Office Spotlight Importer and avoid opening untrusted .XLS files from unknown sources.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2007-5861 — 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-2007-5861 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