CVE-2016-7231
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 for Mac 2011, Office Compatibility Pack SP3, and Excel Viewer 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 for Mac 2011, Office Compatibility Pack SP3, and Excel Viewer allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via a crafted malicious Office document.
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= 2011all versionsall 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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Check if Microsoft Excel 2007 is installed and identify its versionOpen Excel, go to File > Help, or check Programs and Features for Microsoft Excel. Look for version number (e.g., 12.0.xxxx)Affected if Excel 2007 is installed (version 12.0) and has not been patched
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Check if Microsoft Excel for Mac 2011 is installedOpen Excel for Mac 2011, go to Excel menu > About Excel, or check Applications folder for Microsoft Office 2011Affected if Excel for Mac 2011 is installed and has not been patched
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Check if Microsoft Excel Viewer is installedCheck Programs and Features for Microsoft Excel Viewer, or check Program Files for ExcelViewer folderAffected if Excel Viewer is installed (any version) and has not been patched
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Check if Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack is installedCheck Programs and Features for Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word/Excel/PowerPoint File FormatsAffected if Office Compatibility Pack is installed (any version) and has not been patched
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Verify if security update KB3118003 or subsequent patches are installedCheck Windows Update history, or view installed updates in Programs and Features for KB3118003Affected if The specific KB3118003 or related security update is NOT installed on the affected product
You are affected if any of the listed Excel products (2007, Excel for Mac 2011, Excel Viewer, or Office Compatibility Pack) are installed without the corresponding security patch applied.
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 Microsoft security patches (KB3118003 and related updates) to all affected Office installations. Users should avoid opening untrusted or unexpected Office documents from unknown sources.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,560.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2016-7231 — 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-2016-7231 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