CVE-2013-3889
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 SP3, 2010 SP1 and SP2, 2013, and 2013 RT; Office 2007 SP3, 2010 SP1 and SP2, 2013, and 2013 RT; Office for Mac 2011; Excel Viewer; Office Compatibility Pack SP3; and Excel Services and Word Automation Services in SharePoint Server 2013 allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via a crafted Office document, aka "Microsoft 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 and Office products allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via specially crafted Office documents. The vulnerability affects multiple versions of Excel (2007 SP3 through 2013 RT), Office suites, Excel Viewer, Office Compatibility Pack, and SharePoint Server 2013 components.
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= 2010= 2013all versions= 2007= 2010= 2011= 2013all versionsall versions= 2010= 2007= 2013= 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 for installed Microsoft Excel versionOpen Excel, go to File > Account > About Excel, or run 'winver' and check installed programs for Microsoft Excel versions 2010 or 2013Affected if Excel 2010 or Excel 2013 is installed
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Check for installed Microsoft Office versionOpen any Office application (Word, Excel, PowerPoint), go to File > Account > About, or check Control Panel > Programs and Features for Microsoft Office versions 2007, 2010, 2011, or 2013Affected if Microsoft Office 2007, 2010, 2011, or 2013 is installed
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Check for Microsoft Excel Viewer installationCheck Program Files for ExcelViewer folder, or look for Excel Viewer in the installed programs listAffected if Microsoft Excel Viewer is present on the system
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Check for Office Compatibility Pack installationCheck installed programs for 'Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint File Formats'Affected if Office Compatibility Pack is installed
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Check for SharePoint Server installationsCheck if Microsoft SharePoint Server 2007, 2010, or 2013 is installed on the systemAffected if SharePoint Server 2007, 2010, or 2013 is present
If any version of Excel, Office (2007/2010/2011/2013), Excel Viewer, Office Compatibility Pack, or SharePoint Server (2007/2010/2013) listed in the affected products is installed, the system is potentially affected by CVE-2013-3889 and should be checked against available Microsoft security patches.
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 patches for CVE-2013-3889 to all affected Excel, Office, and SharePoint installations. Until patched, avoid opening untrusted Office documents from unknown sources.
- 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-2013-3889 — 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-2013-3889 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