CVE-2011-1982
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 2007 SP2, and 2010 Gold and SP1, does not initialize an unspecified object pointer during the opening of Word documents, which allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via a crafted document, aka "Office Uninitialized Object 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 an uninitialized object pointer vulnerability in Microsoft Office that allows remote code execution when users open specially crafted Word documents. The flaw occurs because an object pointer is not properly initialized before use, leading to memory corruption that can be exploited to execute arbitrary code.
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= 2007= 2010CVSS 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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Check if Office 2007 or 2010 is installedOpen Control Panel > Programs and Features, or run 'winword /?' from the command line to verify Word is presentAffected if Microsoft Office 2007 or 2010 is installed on the system
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Determine the exact Office version and Service Pack levelIn Word, go to File > Help to view the version number and Service Pack, or check the registry at HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Office\<version>\Common\InstallRootAffected if The version is Office 2007 (any Service Pack) or Office 2010 (Gold or SP1)
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Verify if the security update is missingView installed updates in Control Panel > Programs > View installed updates, or check registry key HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Updates for the presence of the updateAffected if The MS11-089 update (KB2584065) is NOT installed on the system
You are affected if Microsoft Office 2007 (any SP) or Office 2010 (Gold/SP1) is installed without the MS11-089 security update 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.
dbcve · scopedApply Microsoft security updates (MS11-089) to affected Office 2007 SP2 and Office 2010 Gold/SP1 installations, and exercise caution when opening Word documents from untrusted sources.
Office 2007: Install Service Pack 3 (SP3); Office 2010: Install Service Pack 2 (SP2) or later
- Open Microsoft Word and go to File > Help > Check for Updates
- Alternatively, download the specific security update MS11-088 from Microsoft's Security Bulletin website
- Ensure Windows Update is enabled and set to automatically download and install updates
- For Office 2007: Apply Service Pack 3 (SP3) which includes the security fix for CVE-2011-1982
- For Office 2010: Apply Service Pack 2 (SP2) or later, which includes the security fix
- After applying updates, verify the version by going to File > Account > About Word and confirm the build number reflects the patched version
- Restart Microsoft Office applications after updates are installed
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,800.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2011-1982 — 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-2011-1982 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