CVE-2013-3855
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 and 2007 SP3, 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 2003/2007 SP3, Office Compatibility Pack SP3, and Word Viewer allows remote code execution or denial of service via specially crafted Office documents. Attackers exploit this by tricking users into opening malicious .doc files.
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= 2007all 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 for Microsoft Word 2003 installationOpen Windows Registry and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Word\InstallRoot, or check C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office11 for WINWORD.EXEAffected if The registry key exists or WINWORD.EXE version 11.x is found in Office11 folder
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Check for Microsoft Word 2007 installationOpen Windows Registry and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Word\InstallRoot, or check C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12 for WINWORD.EXEAffected if The registry key exists or WINWORD.EXE version 12.x is found in Office12 folder
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Check for Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack installationOpen Windows Registry and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\Common\AddIns\Wrd12Conv or check Program Files for Wrd12Conv.dll; alternatively open Word and check File > Help for 'Microsoft Office Word Compatibility Mode'Affected if The Compatibility Pack is installed (any version) or Word opens documents in compatibility mode for .docx files
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Check for Microsoft Word Viewer installationCheck C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\WordViewer for WORDVIEW.EXE or check registry at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WordViewerAffected if Word Viewer is installed (any version) and WORDVIEW.EXE exists
You are affected if any of these products are present: Microsoft Word 2003 (version 11.x), Word 2007 (version 12.x), Office Compatibility Pack, or Word Viewer.
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 patches for affected Word versions; disable macro execution and restrict document previewing in untrusted environments; warn users against opening documents from untrusted sources.
Microsoft 365, Office 2019, or Office 2016 (all supported versions)
- Verify the current Microsoft Office version by opening Word, clicking File > Account > About Word
- If running Word 2003, 2007, Office Compatibility Pack, or Word Viewer, these are legacy unsupported products that require upgrade
- Upgrade to a supported Microsoft Office version such as Microsoft 365, Office 2019, or Office 2016
- Ensure Windows is also updated to a supported version to receive security updates
- After upgrading, open the updated Microsoft Word and verify the version under File > Account
- Apply any pending Windows updates via Windows Update
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing6.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $5,600.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2013-3855 — 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-2013-3855 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