CVE-2014-6364
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 · uneditedUse-after-free vulnerability in Microsoft Office 2007 SP3; 2010 SP2; 2013 Gold, SP1, and SP2; and 2013 RT Gold and SP1 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via a crafted Office document, aka "Microsoft Office Component Use After Free 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 confidenceUse-after-free vulnerability in Microsoft Office components allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via crafted malicious Office documents. The vulnerability stems from improper memory management where memory is accessed after being freed, leading to potential 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= 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 Office installation and versionOpen a command prompt and run: 'reg query "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Office\ClickToRun\Configuration" /v VersionToReport' for Office 365/Click-to-Run, or check Program Files for Microsoft Office folders (Office12 for 2007, Office14 for 2010, Office15 for 2013). Alternatively, open any Office application, go to File > Account > About [App] to see the full version number.Affected if The installed version is Microsoft Office 2007, 2010, or 2013 (any sub-version within these product lines).
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Identify exact Office product versionOpen Word/Excel/PowerPoint, click File > Account > About [Product]. Note the full version number shown (e.g., 15.0.4569.1504 for Office 2013). Compare against Microsoft's official version listings for this CVE.Affected if The version matches Office 2007, 2010, or 2013 and has not had the specific security update for CVE-2014-6364 applied.
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Check for security update installationOpen Windows Update, view update history, or run: 'reg query "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Updates" /s' to search for update packages containing references to CVE-2014-6364 or MS14-082 (the security bulletin for this CVE).Affected if The security update MS14-082 is NOT installed for the detected Office version.
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Assess document handling exposureReview whether users regularly open Office documents from external sources, untrusted emails, or downloads. Check if Preview Pane is enabled in Outlook, as this can trigger parsing of malicious content.Affected if Users routinely open Office attachments from external or untrusted sources without additional sandboxing or scanning.
Your environment is affected if you have Microsoft Office 2007, 2010, or 2013 installed and the MS14-082 security update has not been applied, especially if users open Office documents from external sources.
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 updates for the affected Office versions (2007 SP3, 2010 SP2, 2013 Gold/SP1/SP2, 2013 RT Gold/SP1). Implement email/attachment filtering and consider disabling OLE embedding and ActiveX controls in Office until patches are deployed.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2014-6364 — 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-2014-6364 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