CVE-2013-3890
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, Excel Viewer, and Office Compatibility Pack SP3 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 confidenceA memory corruption vulnerability in Microsoft Excel 2007 SP3, Excel Viewer, and Office Compatibility Pack SP3 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code by tricking users into opening a specially crafted Office document. The vulnerability exploits how Excel handles malformed data in the document, leading to memory corruption that can be leveraged for code execution.
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 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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Identify installed Microsoft Excel versionOpen Excel, go to File > Help, and note the version shown (e.g., Excel 2007). Alternatively, check the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\Excel\InstallRoot for the installation path, then inspect the Excel.exe file version.Affected if The installed Excel version is 2007 or later without security update KB2827324 applied.
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Check for Excel Viewer installationLook for Excel Viewer in the program list (Start > Programs) or check the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\ExcelViewer\InstallRoot. Excel Viewer is typically installed as XLVIEW.EXE.Affected if Excel Viewer is present on the system (all versions are affected).
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Check for Office Compatibility Pack installationLook for Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack in the program list or check the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\Common\InstallRoot for Compatibility Pack components. The component file is COMPAT.TLB or similar.Affected if Office Compatibility Pack is installed (all versions are affected).
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Verify if security update KB2827324 is appliedOpen Control Panel > Programs and Features, click 'View installed updates', and search for 'KB2827324' in the list. Alternatively, run 'wmic qfe get hotfixid' from command prompt to list installed updates.Affected if The update KB2827324 is NOT listed among installed updates.
A user is affected if they have Excel 2007 or later, Excel Viewer, or Office Compatibility Pack installed without security update KB2827324 applied, and they open specially crafted Office 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 update KB2827324 (or subsequent relevant updates) to all affected Excel installations. Users should avoid opening Office documents from untrusted or unknown sources until patches are applied.
Microsoft Office 2019, Microsoft Office 2016, or Microsoft 365 (any current subscription plan)
- Apply Microsoft Security Update MS13-072 (September 2013) which addresses this vulnerability, or
- Upgrade to a supported version of Microsoft Office such as Office 2019, Office 2016, or Microsoft 365 which includes Excel
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation3.0 h
- Testing2.0 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 $2,272.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2013-3890 — 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-2013-3890 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