Actively exploited in the wild. This CVE is on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities list — treat remediation as urgent. Federal remediation due by 3 Sep 2024.
365 AppsApplication · Microsoft

CVE-2024-38189

HIGH · 8.8 CVSS v3.1 Developing Published 2024-08-13
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 16.0.5461.1001 or later.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
In the wild Remotely reachable No privileges Patch available

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 · unedited
Microsoft Project Remote Code Execution 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 · low confidence
Developing — this CVE was published recently and its authoritative NVD entry is still being established, so we're holding a technical summary until the source data settles rather than publish something unreliable. Re-checking after 2026-08-23.

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
365 AppsApplication
Affected:all versions
Office 2019Application
Affected:all versions
Office Long Term Servicing ChannelApplication
Affected:= 2021
Project 2016Application
Affected:< 16.0.5461.1001

CVSS 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
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

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.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 16.0.5461.1001 or later
Fixed in 16.0.5461.1001
Vendor patch msrc.microsoft.com →
Recommended fix Moderate confidence

July 2024 Security Updates for Microsoft Office (KB5002537 and related) - specific version varies by product channel

  1. Check your currently installed Microsoft Project or Office version via File > Account > About [App]
  2. For Project 2016: Ensure version is 16.0.5461.1001 or higher by applying the July 2024 security update (KB5002537 or subsequent updates)
  3. For Office 365, Office 2019, and Office LTSC 2021: Apply the July 2024 Microsoft Office security update through Windows Update or Microsoft Update Catalog
  4. Verify the update was successfully installed by checking the version again after rebooting
  5. Confirm the vulnerability is remediated by reviewing installed updates in Control Panel > Programs and Features > View installed updates
Caveat Standard Office security update apply; minimal risk of breaking changes in monthly security patches

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

We can perform the upgrade in your staging environment and verify nothing breaks — typical engagement from $1,950. Get it fixed fast

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2024-38189 — 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 sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2024-38189 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

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.

What belongs here
  • 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