CVE-2010-2747
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 Word 2002 SP3 and Office 2004 for Mac do not properly handle an uninitialized pointer during parsing of a Word document, which allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via a crafted document that triggers memory corruption, aka "Word Uninitialized Pointer 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 Word 2002 SP3 and Office 2004 for Mac caused by an uninitialized pointer during Word document parsing. When a user opens a specially crafted malicious Word document, the uninitialized pointer leads to memory corruption that can be exploited to achieve arbitrary code execution with the user'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= 2004= 2002CVSS 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 Microsoft Word version on WindowsOpen Microsoft Word, click Help menu, select About Microsoft Word. Note the version number and service pack listed in the dialog box.Affected if The version displayed shows Word 2002 (version 10.x) without Service Pack 3 applied, or an earlier service pack.
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Identify installed Microsoft Office version on WindowsOpen any Office application (such as Word), click Help menu, select About Microsoft Office. Note which Office suite components are installed and their versions.Affected if The installation includes Office 2004 for Mac (version 11.x) running on Mac systems, or Word 2002 version 10.0.x without SP3.
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Check installed programs on Windows for vulnerable Office versionsOpen Control Panel, navigate to Programs and Features (or Add or Remove Programs). Scroll through the installed programs list to locate Microsoft Office or Microsoft Word entries and note the version displayed.Affected if Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac is listed as installed, or Microsoft Word 2002 is listed without Service Pack 3 indicated.
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Verify Word document parsing component availabilityLocate the Word executable (WINWORD.EXE) in the Office installation directory (typically C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\ or C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\). Right-click the file, select Properties, and check the Version tab for file version and product version.Affected if The file version shows 10.0.xxxx series without the SP3 build number (build 6629 or higher indicates SP3).
A user is affected if Microsoft Word 2002 (version 10.0.x) without Service Pack 3, or Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac (version 11.x) is installed and the system can open Word documents.
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.
dbcve · scopedApply Microsoft Security Bulletin MS10-056 (or subsequent relevant patches) to patch the vulnerable Word versions. Until patches are applied, advise users not to open Word documents from untrusted sources and consider deploying advanced email/malware filtering.
Word 2002 SP3 with MS10-056 applied, or upgrade to Microsoft Office 2003/2007/2010 which includes the fix; Office 2004 for Mac should be upgraded to Office 2008 for Mac or later
- Obtain the official Microsoft security update MS10-056 from the Microsoft Update Catalog or your organization's patch management system
- For Windows systems running Word 2002 SP3: Apply Microsoft Security Update MS10-056 (KB2269707)
- For Mac systems running Office 2004 for Mac: Apply Microsoft Security Update for Office 2004 for Mac (KB2284157)
- Restart the affected systems after applying the updates
- Verify the update was successfully installed by checking the installed updates via Control Panel > Programs and Features > View installed updates
- For organizations unable to patch immediately: Configure email gateways and endpoint protection to block untrusted Word document attachments from external sources
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation1.0 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-2010-2747 — 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-2010-2747 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