CVE-2016-3366
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 Outlook 2007 SP3, Outlook 2010 SP2, Outlook 2013 SP1, Outlook 2013 RT SP1, Outlook 2016, and Outlook 2016 for Mac do not properly implement RFC 2046, which allows remote attackers to bypass virus or spam detection via crafted MIME data in an e-mail attachment, aka "Microsoft Office Spoofing 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 confidenceMicrosoft Outlook fails to properly implement RFC 2046 when parsing MIME content in email attachments. This parsing flaw allows attackers to craft malicious MIME structures that hide malicious content from virus and spam detection mechanisms, enabling delivery of potentially harmful attachments.
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= 2013= 2016CVSS 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
- Low
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- Required
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N
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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Check installed Microsoft Outlook versionOpen Outlook, go to File > Office Account > About Outlook, or check the version in Outlook via File > Office AccountAffected if The version displayed is 2007, 2010, 2013, or 2016 (or their service pack variants like SP3, SP2, SP1)
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Verify Outlook is configured to receive emailConfirm Outlook is set up with an email account and actively receiving messages via File > Account Settings > Account SettingsAffected if Outlook has an active email account configured and is processing incoming messages
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Check for incoming email handlingReview Outlook's Junk Email settings via Home > Junk > Junk Email Options, and verify email download is enabledAffected if Outlook is configured to download and process emails from a mail server
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Confirm MIME attachment handlingThis is a passive vulnerability - any incoming email with attachments triggers MIME parsing. No specific config check needed beyond verifying Outlook processes emailsAffected if Outlook processes incoming MIME-formatted emails with attachments (this is default behavior)
If the installed Outlook version is 2007, 2010, 2013, or 2016 and the application processes incoming email with attachments, the environment is potentially affected by this MIME parsing bypass 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 Microsoft security updates for the affected Outlook versions (2007 SP3, 2010 SP2, 2013 SP1, 2016, 2016 for Mac). Consider email gateway-level MIME sanitization as an additional layer of defense.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing6.0 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 $5,600.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2016-3366 — 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-2016-3366 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