CVE-2008-1455
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 · uneditedA "memory calculation error" in Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2000 SP3, 2002 SP3, 2003 SP2, and 2007 through SP1; Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 through SP1; and Office 2004 for Mac allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via a PowerPoint file with crafted list values that trigger memory corruption, aka "Parsing Overflow Vulnerability."
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 PowerPoint's file parsing logic. Attackers craft malicious PowerPoint files with specially designed list values that cause a parsing overflow, allowing them to overwrite memory and execute arbitrary code with the victim's privileges.
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= 2007= 2000= 2003= 2004= 2007= xp= 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
- 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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Identify PowerPoint versionOpen PowerPoint, go to Help > About Microsoft Office PowerPoint, or check Add/Remove Programs for installed Microsoft Office versions. For Command Line: run 'powershell (Get-ItemProperty "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\*\Common\InstallRoot" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue).Version'Affected if Version is 2000, 2003, 2004, 2007, or xp (exact match to affected Office versions)
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Check for PowerPoint Viewer 2003Look in Add/Remove Programs or Program Files for 'Microsoft Office PowerPoint Viewer 2003'Affected if PowerPoint Viewer 2003 is installed
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Check for Compatibility Pack 2007Look in Add/Remove Programs or check registry at HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Compatibility\ for installed Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007Affected if Microsoft Compatibility Pack Word Excel Powerpoint 2007 is installed
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Verify vulnerable component is accessibleConfirm PowerPoint.exe exists on the system and the application can open PowerPoint files. The vulnerability triggers when parsing specially crafted .ppt filesAffected if PowerPoint executable is present and PowerPoint files can be opened
If any installed version matches 2000, 2003, 2004, 2007, or xp for Office, or PowerPoint Viewer 2003, or Compatibility Pack 2007, the environment is vulnerable to this memory corruption flaw when users open malicious PowerPoint files.
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 update (MS08-019) to all affected PowerPoint versions. Additionally, configure endpoint protection to block or warn on Office files from untrusted sources, and disable macros in Office applications.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing3.0 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 $2,800.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2008-1455 — 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-2008-1455 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