CVE-2011-1990
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 Excel 2007 SP2; Excel in Office 2007 SP2; Excel Viewer SP2; Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats SP2; and Excel Services on Office SharePoint Server 2007 SP2 do not properly validate the sign of an unspecified array index, which allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via a crafted spreadsheet, aka "Excel Out of Bounds Array Indexing 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 out-of-bounds array indexing vulnerability in Microsoft Excel 2007 SP2 and related Office components. The vulnerability results from improper validation of the sign of an array index, which can lead to memory corruption and allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via a specially crafted Excel spreadsheet.
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= 2007all versions= 2007= 2007= 2007CVSS 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 Microsoft Excel is installedOpen Control Panel > Programs and Features, look for Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, or related Office products. Alternatively, run 'reg query "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\" /s' to list installed Office applications.Affected if Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, Excel Viewer, Office 2007/2010, Office Compatibility Pack, or SharePoint Server 2007/2010 is installed
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Determine installed Excel version and build numberOpen Excel, go to File > Help, and note the version (e.g., 12.0.xxxx for Excel 2007, 14.0.xxxx for Excel 2010). Or right-click excel.exe in C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\ and check Properties > Details.Affected if Version begins with 12.0 (Excel 2007) or 14.0 (Excel 2010) and the build number is lower than the patched versions from MS11-045
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Verify if security update MS11-045 is installedOpen Control Panel > Programs and Features > View installed updates, search for KB2541001 (the update for MS11-045). Alternatively, run 'wmic qfe list | findstr "KB2541001"' or check via Windows Update history.Affected if KB2541001 or subsequent Office security updates are NOT installed, indicating the vulnerability remains unpatched
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Confirm affected component is Excel file handlerThe vulnerability triggers when opening a specially crafted Excel file (.xls, .xlsx). Check if Excel is configured as the default handler for .xls/.xlsx files in Default Programs or file associations.Affected if Excel is the default application for opening Excel spreadsheets and untrusted files could be received
A user is affected if they have Excel 2007/2010, Excel Viewer, Office 2007/2010, Office Compatibility Pack, or SharePoint Server 2007/2010 installed WITHOUT security update KB2541001 (MS11-045) applied, and they open malicious Excel files.
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 for the affected Office products (MS11-045 or subsequent patches). Until patched, users should avoid opening Excel files from untrusted sources, and organizations can consider disabling Excel file handling in high-risk environments.
Microsoft Office 2007 with Security Update MS11-045 applied (or migrate to newer supported Office versions such as Office 2010 or Office 365)
- 1. Identify the specific Microsoft Office 2007 product installed (Excel 2007, Office Compatibility Pack, or Excel Services on SharePoint Server 2007)
- 2. For Excel 2007 and Office 2007: Apply Microsoft Security Update MS11-045, specifically update KB2541002
- 3. For Office Compatibility Pack for Word/Excel/PowerPoint 2007: Apply update KB2541003
- 4. For Excel Services on SharePoint Server 2007: Apply update KB2540965
- 5. Restart all Microsoft Office applications after applying the update
- 6. Verify the update was successfully installed via Windows Update or by checking Add/Remove Programs for the installed updates
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2011-1990 — 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-2011-1990 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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