CVE-2025-24078
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 · uneditedUse after free in Microsoft Office Word allows an unauthorized attacker to execute code locally.
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 use-after-free vulnerability in Microsoft Office Word allows an attacker to execute code locally by exploiting a memory corruption issue where memory is accessed after it has been freed, potentially leading to arbitrary code execution.
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= 2024= 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
- High
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- Required
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/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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Identify installed Microsoft Word versionOpen Word, go to File > Account > About Word. Alternatively, run `winword /?` from Command Prompt or check Programs and Features.Affected if The displayed version matches Office 2019, Office LTSC 2021, Office LTSC 2024, Word 2016, or any Microsoft 365 Apps version (these are all listed as affected)
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Confirm Office subscription or license typeIn Word, go to File > Account. Check if it shows Microsoft 365 or a subscription-based license. Check if it's a one-time purchase (Office 2019, 2021, 2024) or a perpetual license.Affected if Any Microsoft 365 Apps subscription, Office 2019, Office LTSC 2021, or Office LTSC 2024 one-time purchase is installed (all are affected per the CVE)
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Verify the vulnerable component is presentThe vulnerability exists in the core Word application (winword.exe). Confirm the application is installed by checking that C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\Office*\WINWORD.EXE or C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\root\Office*\WINWORD.EXE exists.Affected if Microsoft Word is installed and the WINWORD.EXE executable is present on the system
If Microsoft Word is installed and matches any of the affected versions (Office 2019, Office LTSC 2021/2024, Word 2016, or Microsoft 365 Apps), the environment falls within the affected scope for 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 Microsoft security updates for Microsoft Office Word as soon as they become available. Until a patch is released, exercise caution with untrusted Word documents and consider enabling Office Protected View or disabling macro execution.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 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-2025-24078 — 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-2025-24078 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