CVE-2016-7232
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 2007, Office 2010 SP2, Word 2010 SP2, Word for Mac 2011, 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 confidenceMemory corruption vulnerability in Microsoft Word and Office products that allows arbitrary code execution when users open specially crafted malicious Office documents. The vulnerability stems from improper memory handling when parsing Office file formats, enabling attackers to execute arbitrary code via crafted documents.
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= 2010all versions= 2007= 2010= 2011CVSS 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 Microsoft Office 2010 installationOpen Control Panel > Programs and Features, look for 'Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010' or similar Office 2010 entry, or right-click WINWORD.EXE in Program Files and select Properties > Details to view versionAffected if Microsoft Office 2010 is installed (version equals 2010)
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Check Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack installationOpen Control Panel > Programs and Features, look for 'Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint' entryAffected if Office Compatibility Pack is installed (all versions are affected)
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Check Microsoft Word 2007 versionLocate WINWORD.EXE in Program Files (Microsoft Office) or Program Files (x86), right-click and check Properties > Details for version number, or run 'winword.exe /?' from Command PromptAffected if Word version is 2007 (equals 2007)
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Check Microsoft Word 2010 versionLocate WINWORD.EXE in Program Files (Microsoft Office) or Program Files (x86), right-click and check Properties > Details for version number, or run 'winword.exe /?' from Command PromptAffected if Word version is 2010 (equals 2010)
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Check Microsoft Word for Mac 2011On Mac, open Finder > Applications, right-click Microsoft Word.app, select Get Info to view version numberAffected if Word for Mac version is 2011 (equals 2011)
A user is affected if they have Microsoft Office 2010, Word 2007, Word 2010, Word for Mac 2011, or the Office Compatibility Pack installed, since all these versions fall within the affected ranges.
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 (MS16-121) to all affected Word and Office installations. Avoid opening untrusted or unexpected Office documents and enable Protected View in Office to mitigate risk until patches are applied.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing4.0 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 $5,120.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2016-7232 — 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-2016-7232 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