CVE-2008-3004
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 2000 SP3, 2002 SP3, and 2003 SP2 and SP3; Office Excel Viewer 2003; and Office 2004 and 2008 for Mac do not properly validate index values for AxesSet records when loading Excel files, which allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via a crafted Excel file, aka the "Excel Indexing Validation 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 contains a vulnerability in how it validates index values for AxesSet records when loading Excel files. When a user opens a specially crafted malicious Excel file, the improper validation of index values can lead to memory corruption, allowing remote attackers to execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the user who opened the 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= 2000= 2003= xp= 2004= 2008= 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
- 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 Excel versionCheck the Excel application version. On Windows, open Excel, go to Help > About Microsoft Excel, or right-click Excel.exe in the program directory and select Properties > Details to view the File Version. Compare this version number to the affected versions: Office 2000, 2003, XP, 2004, or 2008.Affected if The installed Excel version matches one of the affected versions (2000, 2003, XP, 2004, or 2008).
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Verify patch MS08-043 is absentCheck if the security update MS08-043 has been installed. On Windows, open Control Panel > Programs and Features > View installed updates, and search for 'KB954066' which corresponds to MS08-043. Alternatively, check the registry at HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Updates for the presence of the KB954066 update entry.Affected if The KB954066 update (MS08-043) is NOT installed, meaning the system remains unpatched for this vulnerability.
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Confirm Excel Viewer vulnerability statusIf Microsoft Office Excel Viewer 2003 is installed, verify its version. Check the file properties of the ExcelView.exe file located in the Excel Viewer installation directory, or check Add/Remove Programs for the installed version.Affected if Excel Viewer 2003 is installed without the MS08-043 patch applied.
A user is affected if they have Microsoft Office Excel (versions 2000, 2003, XP, 2004, or 2008) or Excel Viewer 2003 installed AND the MS08-043 security update (KB954066) has not been applied.
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 Microsoft security updates (MS08-043) to all affected Office installations. Until patches are applied, instruct users not to open untrusted Excel files from unknown sources, and consider implementing email gateway filtering for Excel attachments.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2008-3004 — 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-2008-3004 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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