CVE-2016-7275
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 Office 2010 SP2, 2013 SP1, 2013 RT SP1, and 2016 mishandles library loading, which allows local users to gain privileges via a crafted application, aka "Microsoft Office OLE DLL Side Loading 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 confidenceThis is a DLL side-loading vulnerability in Microsoft Office's OLE (Object Linking and Embedding) component where the application loads dynamic link libraries from insecure locations. A local attacker can place a malicious DLL in a location where Office will load it, achieving privilege escalation to execute code with elevated privileges.
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= 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
- Local
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/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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Identify installed Microsoft Office versionOpen Command Prompt and run: reg query 'HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\ClickToRun\Configuration' /v Version. For Office 2010/2013/2016, also check: reg query 'HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\[version]\Common\InstallRoot' where [version] is 14.0 (2010), 15.0 (2013), or 16.0 (2016)Affected if The installed version is 2010, 2013, or 2016 as listed in the affected versions
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Verify OLE component is presentCheck for the presence of OLE automation files: dir /s C:\Windows\System32\ole*.dll or verify the OLE32.DLL exists in System32Affected if The OLE component DLLs exist in the Office or System32 directory, which is required for the vulnerability to be triggerable
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Check DLL search order configurationRun: reg query 'HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\SafeDllSearchMode' to check if safe DLL search is enabled. Value 1 = safe search enabled, 0 = disabledAffected if SafeDllSearchMode is set to 0 (disabled), indicating insecure DLL loading paths may be used
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Inspect Office DLL loading behaviorUse Process Monitor (from Sysinternals) to capture Office application startup and filter for DLL load operations, checking if DLLs are loaded from user-writable directories like the application directory or temp foldersAffected if Office applications load DLLs from locations outside protected system directories
If Office version 2010, 2013, or 2016 is installed and OLE components are present with unsafe DLL search order settings or observed DLL loads from insecure paths, the environment is likely affected by this CVE.
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 updates for this CVE. Additionally, implement secure DLL search order settings and ensure Office applications only load DLLs from trusted, protected directories.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation1.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2016-7275 — 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-2016-7275 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
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