CVE-2013-3850
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 2003 SP3, 2007 SP3, and 2010 SP1 and SP2; Office Compatibility Pack SP3; and Word Viewer allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (memory corruption) via a crafted Office document, aka "Word 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 Word parsing of crafted Office documents, allowing remote code execution or denial of service via improper memory handling during document parsing.
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 dataall versions= 2003= 2007= 2010all 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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Identify installed Microsoft Word versionOpen Word, go to File > Account > About Word, or run 'winword /?' from command prompt to display version informationAffected if Version is 2003, 2007, or 2010 (any build)
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Check for Microsoft Word Viewer installationSearch for 'WordViewer.exe' in Program Files or check Add/Remove Programs for Microsoft Word ViewerAffected if Microsoft Word Viewer is installed (any version)
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Check for Microsoft Office Compatibility PackSearch for 'WordCNV.dll' or check Add/Remove Programs for Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word/Excel/PowerPoint File FormatsAffected if Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack is installed (any version)
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Confirm vulnerable parsing component existsVerify the affected Word application can open and parse .doc files - the vulnerability triggers during document parsing operationsAffected if Word application with vulnerable version can parse .doc documents
User is affected if Microsoft Word 2003, 2007, or 2010, Microsoft Word Viewer (any version), or Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack (any version) is installed and the application is used to open 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 updates KB2826026 and KB2826034 (or subsequent updates) for affected Word versions; alternatively upgrade to latest Office service packs. Avoid opening untrusted or unexpected Office documents.
Upgrade to a supported Microsoft 365 Apps or Office 2016/2019/2021 perpetual license version (Word 2016 or later)
- Verify the current Microsoft Office version by opening Word, clicking File, and selecting Account or Help
- Back up all important Office documents before making changes
- Download and install the latest Microsoft Office version from official Microsoft channels (office.com) or obtain through your organization's volume licensing
- If organizational constraints prevent full upgrade, apply all available Microsoft security updates via Windows Update/Microsoft Update
- After update, verify Word version shows current supported release
- Test critical workflows with the updated Office installation
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation6.0 h
- Testing6.0 h
- Review / QA3.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $4,992.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2013-3850 — 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-2013-3850 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