CVE-2014-1756
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 · uneditedUntrusted search path vulnerability in Microsoft Office 2007 SP3, 2010 SP1 and SP2, and 2013 Gold, SP1, RT, and RT SP1, when the Simplified Chinese Proofing Tool is enabled, allows local users to gain privileges via a Trojan horse DLL in the current working directory, as demonstrated by a directory that contains a .docx file, aka "Microsoft Office Chinese Grammar Checking 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 confidenceUntrusted search path vulnerability in Microsoft Office (2007 SP3, 2010 SP1/SP2, 2013 Gold/SP1/RT/RT SP1) where the Simplified Chinese Proofing Tool loads malicious DLLs from the current working directory instead of secure system paths, enabling local privilege escalation.
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= 2007= 2010= 2013CVSS 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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Verify if Simplified Chinese Proofing Tool is installedOpen Programs and Features (appwiz.cpl) and look for an entry containing 'Proofing' and 'Chinese (Simplified)' or 'Microsoft Office Proofing Tools' with Chinese Simplified language packAffected if The Simplified Chinese Proofing Tool component is present in the installation
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Check Microsoft Office versionLocate the Office installation directory (typically C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office or C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office) and check the version info of WINWORD.EXE, EXCEL.EXE, or the primary Office application, or use 'winword /?' command to display versionAffected if Office version is 2007, 2010, or 2013 (note: Service Pack level may not display in version string, assume affected if version matches these three major releases)
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Confirm Office component DLL locationSearch for the Simplified Chinese proofing DLL (typically located in the Office proofing tools directory under the MUI or proof folders) and verify it loads from the Office installation path rather than a user-writable locationAffected if The proofing tool DLL exists in the standard Office installation directory and would load from the current working directory instead of the secure system path when Office is launched from a writable directory
User is affected if Simplified Chinese Proofing Tool is installed on Microsoft Office 2007, 2010, or 2013, and the application can be launched from a user-writable directory where malicious DLLs could be placed.
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 · scopedDisable the Simplified Chinese Proofing Tool in affected Office installations via Programs and Features or Group Policy, and ensure Office applications are never launched from writable directories.
- Check the current installed version of Microsoft Office by opening any Office application, going to File > Account > About [app name]
- Identify the specific security update needed for CVE-2014-1756 from Microsoft's Security Bulletin (MS14-023)
- Download and install the appropriate security update for your Office version from the Microsoft Update Catalog or Windows Update
- Restart all Office applications after installing the update
- Verify the update was successfully installed by checking Windows Update history for the installed security patch
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 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 $2,560.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2014-1756 — 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-2014-1756 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