CVE-2023-36761
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 Information Disclosure 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 · moderate confidenceA medium-severity information disclosure vulnerability in Microsoft Word. Based on the CVE title and CVSS score, this appears to be a flaw in Word's document parsing that could allow an attacker to potentially read sensitive information from specially crafted documents, though the exact technical details are not specified in the available description.
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 dataall versions= 2019= 2021= 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
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- Required
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
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.
-
Check if Microsoft Word is installedOpen Control Panel > Programs and Features, or run 'Get-ItemProperty HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\* | Select DisplayName, DisplayVersion' in PowerShell to list installed Microsoft Office products.Affected if Microsoft Word does not appear in the installed programs list, then the system is not affected by this vulnerability in Word.
-
Identify the installed Word versionOpen Word, go to File > Account > About Word, or run 'winword.exe /?' from Command Prompt to display the version information.Affected if The displayed version does not match 2013, 2016, 2019, or 2021 (including LTSC), or is not part of Microsoft 365 Apps, then it may not be affected.
-
Confirm the specific Office/Word buildCheck the registry key HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Office\ClickToRun\Configuration (for Microsoft 365/Office 2016+) or HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Office\[version]\Word\InstallRoot\Path (for Office 2013/2016) to locate the installed Office version and build number.Affected if The build number does not correspond to an affected Microsoft 365 Apps, Office 2019, Office 2021 LTSC, Word 2013, or Word 2016 version.
-
Determine if the affected Office subscription or license type is in useIn Word, go to File > Account to see if it is a Microsoft 365 Apps subscription, Office 2019 perpetual, Office 2021 LTSC, or a standalone Word 2013/2016 license.Affected if The product is not one of the listed affected versions (Microsoft 365 Apps, Office 2019, Office 2021 LTSC, Word 2013, or Word 2016).
A user is affected if they have Microsoft Word installed and their specific version matches Microsoft 365 Apps (any version), Office 2019, Office 2021 LTSC, Word 2013, or Word 2016.
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 updates for Microsoft Word as they become available through Windows Update or your organization's patch management process.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing3.0 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 $2,800.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2023-36761 — 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-2023-36761 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
Be the first to add a field note for this CVE — a mitigation you’ve verified, a version caveat, or a link to a working fix. Sign in above to contribute.
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