CVE-2016-3283
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 Viewer allows 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 · moderate confidenceA memory corruption vulnerability in Microsoft Word Viewer allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code by tricking users into opening a specially crafted Office document. The vulnerability stems from improper memory handling when parsing Office files, leading to potential code execution in the context of the current user.
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 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
- None
- User interaction
- Required
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/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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Verify Word Viewer installation existsCheck for the presence of the Word Viewer executable. On 32-bit systems, look for 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\WordView\WordView.exe'. On 64-bit systems, check both the 32-bit path and 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\WordView\WordView.exe'. You can also query the Windows Registry under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\WordView.exe for the installation path.Affected if The Word Viewer executable is found on the system, indicating the software is installed.
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Confirm the installed versionRight-click the WordView.exe file, select Properties, then go to the Details tab to view the File Version. Alternatively, run 'wmic product get name,version' or use PowerShell 'Get-ItemProperty' on the executable to retrieve version information.Affected if Any version number is returned, confirming Word Viewer is installed (all versions are affected per the CVE).
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Verify the application can open Office documentsCheck if the Word Viewer file association handler is registered. Look in the Windows Registry under HKCR\.docx\OpenWithProgids or HKCR\Word.Viewer.8\shell\Open\command to confirm the viewer is registered as a handler for Office document types.Affected if Word Viewer is registered as an handler for Office documents, meaning it can be invoked to parse files.
The environment is affected if Microsoft Word Viewer is installed and can be used to open Office documents, since all versions of this software contain the memory corruption vulnerability.
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 the relevant Microsoft security update for Microsoft Word Viewer to patch the memory corruption vulnerability. Until the patch is applied, avoid opening untrusted Office documents and consider disabling the Word Viewer COM component as a defense-in-depth measure.
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2016-3283 — 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-2016-3283 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
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