CVE-2016-3233
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 2010 SP2, and Office Compatibility Pack SP3 allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via a crafted Office document, aka "Microsoft Office 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 2010 SP2, and Office Compatibility Pack SP3 allows remote attackers to achieve arbitrary code execution via specially crafted Office documents. The vulnerability stems from improper memory handling when parsing Excel files, potentially allowing an attacker to corrupt memory and execute malicious code.
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= 2010all 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
- Local
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- Low
- User interaction
- Required
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
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 > Account > About Excel, or right-click excel.exe in the installation directory (typically C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14 for Excel 2010) and select Properties to view version numberAffected if Version shows 2007 (12.0) or 2010 (14.0) without service packs or security updates applied
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Check for Office Compatibility Pack installationOpen Control Panel > Programs and Features, look for 'Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint File Formats' in the installed programs list; or check registry under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\CompatibilityPack\InstallRootAffected if Office Compatibility Pack is installed (all versions are affected)
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Verify MS16-070 security update installationOpen Windows Update > View update history, or check registry under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Component Based Servicing\Packages for update package containing 'KB3118008' (Excel 2007) or 'KB3118003' (Excel 2010)Affected if The specific KB update for this CVE is NOT listed in installed updates
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Confirm vulnerability applicabilityThe vulnerability is triggered when Excel parses specially crafted .xlsx, .xls, or .xlsm files. Check if users in your environment open Excel documents from external or untrusted sourcesAffected if Vulnerable Excel versions are in use AND MS16-070 update is absent AND users process external Excel files
A user is affected if they run Microsoft Excel 2007, Excel 2010, or Office Compatibility Pack without the MS16-070 security updates installed and open Excel documents from potentially untrusted 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 patches for this vulnerability (MS16-070), and configure Office Protected View settings to mitigate risks from untrusted documents.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation3.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,800.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2016-3233 — 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-2016-3233 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