CVE-2016-7263
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 for Mac 2011 and Excel 2016 for Mac allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (memory corruption) via a crafted 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 confidenceCVE-2016-7263 is a memory corruption vulnerability in Microsoft Excel for Mac 2011 and Excel 2016 for Mac. Attackers exploit this by tricking users into opening specially crafted malicious Excel documents, which can allow arbitrary code execution or cause a denial of service.
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= 2011= 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
- 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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Confirm Excel for Mac is installedOpen Finder, go to /Applications folder, and look for Microsoft Excel.app. Alternatively, run: ls /Applications | grep -i excelAffected if Microsoft Excel for Mac is not installed on the system
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Determine installed Excel for Mac versionOpen Excel, click Excel menu > About Microsoft Excel. Note the version number displayed. Or run: defaults read /Applications/Microsoft\ Excel.app/Contents/Info CFBundleVersionAffected if Version shows as Excel for Mac 2011 or Excel 2016 for Mac (any build)
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Check file quarantine status for Excel documentsOpen Terminal and run: defaults read com.apple.LaunchServices OpenDocument -contentResolverQuarantineInterval. Also check: xattr -l (on a sample .xlsx file) to see if com.apple.quarantine is setAffected if File quarantine is disabled or not prompting on Excel document opening
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Verify Excel macro security settingsIn Excel, go to Excel > Preferences > Security. Check 'Macro Security' settings. On command line: defaults read com.microsoft.Excel ContentBindingAffected if Macros are set to enable automatically without prompting or security warnings are disabled
User is affected if Excel for Mac 2011 or Excel 2016 for Mac is installed and the application opens documents from untrusted sources without proper security prompts.
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 dataAvoid opening Excel documents from untrusted or unknown sources. Apply Microsoft security updates to patch the vulnerability on affected Mac systems.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation3.0 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-2016-7263 — 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-2016-7263 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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- 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