CVE-2012-1886
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 2003 SP3, 2007 SP2 and SP3, and 2010 SP1; Excel Viewer; and Office Compatibility Pack SP2 and SP3 allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (memory corruption) via a crafted spreadsheet, aka "Excel Memory Corruption 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 confidenceMemory corruption vulnerability in Microsoft Excel allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause denial of service via specially crafted spreadsheet files. The vulnerability affects Excel 2003 SP3 through 2010 SP1, Excel Viewer, and Office Compatibility Pack.
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= 2010all versionsall versionsCVSS 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 installed Microsoft Excel versionOpen Excel, go to File > Help, or run 'winword /?' from command prompt, or check registry key HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Office\{version}\Excel\InstallRootAffected if Version is 2003, 2007, or 2010 (any sub-version within these major releases)
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Confirm Excel Viewer installationCheck registry key HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Office\ExcelViewer or look for Excel Viewer in Programs and FeaturesAffected if Excel Viewer is present (all versions affected)
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Confirm Office Compatibility Pack installationCheck registry key HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Office\Word\Compatibility or look for Office Compatibility Pack in Programs and FeaturesAffected if Office Compatibility Pack is present (all versions affected)
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Verify security update statusCheck installed updates via Control Panel > Programs > View installed updates, or run 'wmic qfe list' command, and look for Microsoft security update KB2597986 or laterAffected if The specific security update for this CVE is NOT installed
If Excel 2003/2007/2010, Excel Viewer, or Office Compatibility Pack is installed and KB2597986 or later update is missing, the environment is affected by this vulnerability.
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 immediately, disable opening of untrusted Excel attachments at the email gateway, and consider upgrading to supported Office versions no longer affected by this vulnerability.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing1.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2012-1886 — 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-2012-1886 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