dbcve.org
ExcelApplication · Microsoft

CVE-2016-7228

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v3.0 Published 2016-11-10
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
81/100
Remediation priority · High
No privileges

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 Excel 2007 SP3, Excel 2010 SP2, Excel 2013 SP1, Excel 2013 RT SP1, Excel 2016, Excel for Mac 2011, Excel 2016 for Mac, 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 confidence

Memory corruption vulnerability in Microsoft Excel allowing remote code execution via specially crafted Office documents. The vulnerability affects Excel 2007 SP3 through Excel 2016 and Office Compatibility Pack when parsing malformed Excel files.

MitigationApply Microsoft security updates (MS16-148) to all affected Excel installations; enable Protected View for untrusted documents and educate users to avoid opening files from unknown sources.

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
ExcelApplication
Affected:= 2007= 2010= 2013= 2016
Excel For MacApplication
Affected:= 2011= 2016
Office Compatibility PackApplication
Affected:all versions

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
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 checks

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

  1. Identify installed Microsoft Excel version
    Open Excel, go to File > Account > About Excel (or Help > About Microsoft Excel on older versions). Alternatively, open Windows PowerShell and run: Get-ItemProperty 'HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\Office\*\Excel\ProductReleaseVersions' -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Select-Object -ExpandProperty PSChildName. On Mac, open Excel and go to Excel > About Excel.
    Affected if The installed version matches Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, or 2016.
  2. Check for Microsoft Excel for Mac
    On Mac systems, open Excel and navigate to Excel > About Excel to display the version number.
    Affected if The installed version matches Excel for Mac 2011 or Excel for Mac 2016.
  3. Verify Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack installation
    On Windows, open Control Panel > Programs and Features, or run: Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Product | Where-Object {$_.Name -match 'Compatibility Pack'}. Check if the Office Compatibility Pack for Word/Excel/PowerPoint File Formats is installed.
    Affected if The Office Compatibility Pack is installed (all versions are affected per the CVE data).
  4. Confirm Excel is the parsing component
    Verify that Excel (or the Compatibility Pack) is the software responsible for opening and parsing .xlsx, .xls, and related spreadsheet files in your environment.
    Affected if Excel or the Compatibility Pack is used to open spreadsheet files, making it the component that would parse a malformed file.
  5. Assess file opening vector exposure
    Determine whether users in your environment can open spreadsheet files received via email, downloaded from the internet, or obtained from external sources.
    Affected if Users can open untrusted or externally-sourced Excel files, which is the attack vector for triggering this vulnerability through malformed file parsing.

Your environment is affected if you have Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, or 2016 (Windows), Excel for Mac 2011 or 2016, or the Office Compatibility Pack installed, and users can open spreadsheet files from untrusted sources.

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.

From vendor data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Apply Microsoft security updates (MS16-148) to all affected Excel installations; enable Protected View for untrusted documents and educate users to avoid opening files from unknown sources.

Fix this in Excel Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
18.0 hours of engineering $3,200
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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-2016-7228 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