CVE-2011-0107
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 · uneditedUntrusted search path vulnerability in Microsoft Office XP SP3, Office 2003 SP3, and Office 2007 SP2 allows local users to gain privileges via a Trojan horse DLL in the current working directory, as demonstrated by a directory that contains a .docx file, aka "Office Component Insecure Library Loading 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 loads DLLs from the current working directory before checking system paths, allowing an attacker to place a malicious DLL (e.g., named after a legitimate Office dependency) in a directory containing a .docx file. When a user opens the document, Office inadvertently loads the attacker's DLL with the user's privileges, enabling privilege escalation.
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= 2003= 2007= xpCVSS 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 Office versionOpen Word and go to File > Help, or run 'winword /?' in command prompt, or check registry at HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\ClickToRun\Configuration or legacy paths like HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Common\InstallRootAffected if The installed version is Office XP (version 10.0), Office 2003 (version 11.0), or Office 2007 (version 12.0)
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Verify if security updates are appliedCheck Windows Update history for installed updates MS11-021, MS11-022, or MS11-023, or view installed updates via Control Panel > Programs and Features > View installed updatesAffected if None of the three security updates (MS11-021, MS11-022, MS11-023) are installed on the system
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Check DLL search path registry workaroundExamine registry key HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\CWDIllegalInDllSearch for the presence and value, or check HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run for related entriesAffected if The CWDIllegalInDllSearch registry key does not exist or is not set to prevent loading from current directory (value not equal to 0xFFFFFFFF)
The environment is vulnerable if Office 2003, 2007, or XP is installed AND the corresponding security updates (MS11-021/MS11-022/MS11-023) have not been applied AND the DLL search path workaround is not configured in the registry.
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 (MS11-021/MS11-022/MS11-023) to remediate unsafe DLL loading. As a workaround, ensure users do not open documents from untrusted network shares or directories, and consider disabling the current working directory from the DLL search path via registry settings.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2011-0107 — 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-2011-0107 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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