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Office Compatibility PackApplication · Microsoft

CVE-2014-6334

HIGH · 9.3 CVSS v2.0 Published 2014-11-11
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

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 · unedited
Microsoft Word 2007 SP3, Word Viewer, 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 "Microsoft Office Bad Index Remote Code Execution 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 confidence

Memory corruption vulnerability in Microsoft Word 2007 SP3, Word Viewer, and Office Compatibility Pack SP3 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via specially crafted Office documents containing malformed data that triggers heap corruption.

MitigationDeploy the Microsoft security update MS14-061 to affected systems, and implement email/attachment filtering to block untrusted Office documents from reaching end users.

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
Office Compatibility PackApplication
Affected:all versions
Office Word ViewerApplication
Affected:all versions
WordApplication
Affected:= 2007

CVSS 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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Check for Microsoft Word 2007 installation
    Open Registry Editor and navigate to HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Word\InstallRoot, or run 'wmic product where "name like '%Office%2007%'" get name,version' in Command Prompt
    Affected if Word 2007 is installed (any SP level) - the affected version is specifically = 2007
  2. Check for Word Viewer installation
    Look for WordView.exe in typical locations such as C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\ or C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\, or check registry under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\Software\WordView
    Affected if Word Viewer is present on the system (all versions are affected)
  3. Check for Office Compatibility Pack installation
    Run 'wmic product where "name like '%Compatibility%'" get name,version' or check registry under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\Common\InstallRoot for Compatibility Pack components
    Affected if Office Compatibility Pack is installed (all versions are affected)
  4. Verify affected Word 2007 patch state
    Check if MS14-061 (KB3000434) is installed by running 'wmic qfe get HotFixID,InstalledOn | findstr 3000434' or viewing installed updates in Control Panel > Programs and Features > View installed updates
    Affected if The system has Word 2007 but MS14-061 patch is NOT installed

If any of these products (Word 2007, Word Viewer, or Office Compatibility Pack) are installed and the MS14-061 security update has not been applied, the environment is vulnerable to CVE-2014-6334.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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 · scoped
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Deploy the Microsoft security update MS14-061 to affected systems, and implement email/attachment filtering to block untrusted Office documents from reaching end users.

Recommended fix High confidence

Microsoft Office 2007 Service Pack 3 with security updates applied, or upgrade to a newer supported Office version such as Office 365 or Office 2021

  1. Check the installed version of Microsoft Office components (Word 2007, Word Viewer, Office Compatibility Pack) by opening any Office application and navigating to File > Help or About
  2. For Microsoft Word 2007: Apply security update KB2984939 from Microsoft (released December 2014) - this addresses the vulnerability in Word 2007 SP3 and Office Compatibility Pack SP3
  3. For Microsoft Word Viewer: Apply security update KB2984937 from Microsoft (released December 2014)
  4. For Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack: Apply security update KB2984939 (same update covers both Word 2007 and Compatibility Pack)
  5. Alternatively, verify that Windows Update is enabled and configured to automatically receive Microsoft security updates, then check for and install any pending Office security updates
  6. After patching, verify the update was successful by checking the installed updates via Control Panel > Programs and Features > View installed updates
  7. Restart the computer after applying updates
Caveat Patches for end-of-life products like Office 2007 may have limited support; consider upgrading to a currently supported Office version for ongoing security updates

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Office Compatibility Pack Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation3.0 h
  • Implementation6.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
14.0 hours of engineering $2,490
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2014-6334 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

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.

What belongs here
  • 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