CVE-2010-1881
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 · uneditedThe FieldList ActiveX control in the Microsoft Access Wizard Controls in ACCWIZ.dll in Microsoft Office Access 2003 SP3 does not properly interact with the memory-access approach used by Internet Explorer and Office during instantiation, which allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (memory corruption) via an HTML document that references this control along with crafted persistent storage data, aka "ACCWIZ.dll Uninitialized Variable 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 an uninitialized variable vulnerability in the FieldList ActiveX control (ACCWIZ.dll) within Microsoft Office Access 2003 SP3. Attackers can exploit this by crafting an HTML document that references the control combined with malicious persistent storage data, leading to memory corruption and potential remote code execution.
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= 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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Confirm Microsoft Access 2003 installationCheck registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Access\InstallRoot or verify presence of Microsoft Access 2003 in Add/Remove ProgramsAffected if Microsoft Access 2003 is installed on the system
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Locate the vulnerable ACCWIZ.dll componentSearch for ACCWIZ.dll in the Office installation directory (typically C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\ or C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\) and check the file version propertiesAffected if ACCWIZ.dll exists and its version corresponds to Access 2003
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Verify the FieldList ActiveX control is registeredCheck Windows registry under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Classes\TypeLib or HKCR\TypeLib for the FieldList control GUID, or use regsvr32 to query ACCWIZ.dll registration statusAffected if The FieldList ActiveX control (CLSID {03C9C4A4-6D43-11D3-A6D1-00C04F8EFB6E}) is registered on the system
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Determine if ActiveX controls are enabledCheck Internet Explorer security settings (Tools > Internet Options > Security > Custom Level) for 'Initialize and script ActiveX controls not marked as safe' setting, or check Office Trust Center ActiveX settingsAffected if ActiveX controls are permitted to run in the browser or Office applications
A system is affected if Microsoft Access 2003 is installed, ACCWIZ.dll is present, the FieldList ActiveX control is registered, and ActiveX execution is enabled in the targeted environment.
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 for this vulnerability, or upgrade from Office 2003 to a supported version. As a compensating control, disable ActiveX controls in Internet Explorer and Office for high-risk systems.
- Consultation3.0 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-2010-1881 — 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-2010-1881 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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A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.
- 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