CVE-2008-3003
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 Office Excel 2007 Gold and SP1 does not properly delete the PWD (password) string from connections.xml when a .xlsx file is configured not to save the remote data session password, which allows local users to obtain sensitive information and obtain access to a remote data source, aka the "Excel Credential Caching 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 confidenceMicrosoft Office Excel 2007 Gold and SP1 fails to properly remove plaintext passwords (PWD strings) from the connections.xml file within .xlsx archives, even when the workbook is configured not to save remote data session passwords. Local users with file system access can extract the .xlsx archive, read connections.xml, and obtain plaintext credentials for remote data sources.
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= 2007CVSS 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
- Local
- Complexity
- Low
- Authentication
- None
- Confidentiality
- Complete
- Integrity
- Complete
- Availability
- None
AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/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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Identify Excel versionOpen Excel, click Help > About Microsoft Office Excel. Verify the version is exactly 2007 (12.0.x). If version shows 12.0.0 to 12.0.x where x is any build, the installation is potentially affected.Affected if The installed version is Microsoft Excel 2007 (12.0.x)
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Locate .xlsx files with connections.xmlSearch file system for .xlsx files. Extract any found .xlsx archives (rename to .zip, open, look for xl/connections.xml). Files containing xl/connections.xml store data connection settings and are potential targets.Affected if You have .xlsx files that contain an xl/connections.xml file
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Inspect connections.xml for plaintext passwordsOpen the connections.xml file from within any .xlsx archive. Search for the string 'PWD=' or '<PWD>' XML elements. If plaintext password values appear in these elements, the file is affected.Affected if The connections.xml file contains PWD strings with plaintext password values
You are affected if you use Excel 2007 and have .xlsx files with connections.xml that contain plaintext PWD strings for data source connections.
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 dataOrganizations should audit existing .xlsx files for embedded credentials, remove connections.xml from untrusted files, enforce policies prohibiting credential storage in Office documents, and apply the Microsoft patch for Excel 2007. Users should avoid configuring Excel to cache data source passwords.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2008-3003 — 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-2008-3003 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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- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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