CVE-2014-0259
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 2007 SP3 and Office Compatibility Pack SP3 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 2007 SP3 and Office Compatibility Pack SP3 allows attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause denial of service via specially crafted Office documents. The vulnerability stems from improper memory handling when parsing malformed Word 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= 2007CVSS 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 if Microsoft Word 2007 is installedOpen Registry Editor 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 is present in the Office12 folder
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Verify Word 2007 versionRight-click WINWORD.EXE in C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\, select Properties, and check the File Version on the Details tabAffected if File version corresponds to Microsoft Office Word 2007 (version 12.0) - all versions of Word 2007 are affected per the CVE
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Check for Office Compatibility Pack installationOpen Registry Editor and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Common\InstallRoot, or check C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\ for WRD12CNV.DLLAffected if The Compatibility Pack registry keys exist or WRD12CNV.DLL is present, indicating Office Compatibility Pack SP3 is installed
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Confirm patch KB2878216 is not installedOpen Control Panel > Programs and Features, click View installed updates, and search for Security Update for Microsoft Office (KB2878216)Affected if KB2878216 is NOT listed in installed updates - the system remains vulnerable
A system is affected if Word 2007 or Office Compatibility Pack SP3 is installed AND security update KB2878216 has not been applied.
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 Bulletin MS14-017 (KB2878216) which addresses this vulnerability, or upgrade to a supported Office version. Until patched, advise users not to open untrusted Office documents.
Microsoft Office 2016 or later / Microsoft 365 (supported versions)
- 1. Verify current Microsoft Office version by opening any Office application, clicking File > Account > About [App]
- 2. Back up all important Office documents to an external location
- 3. Uninstall Microsoft Office 2007 and Office Compatibility Pack from Control Panel > Programs and Features
- 4. Install a supported Microsoft Office version (Office 2016 or later, or Microsoft 365 subscription)
- 5. Ensure Windows Update is enabled and run updates to install latest security patches for the new Office installation
- 6. Re-open previously crafted Office documents only from trusted sources; consider re-creating documents in the new format if compatibility issues arise
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
- Consultation1.0 h
- Implementation2.0 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 $1,664.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2014-0259 — 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-2014-0259 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