CVE-2025-49698
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 · low confidenceThis is a Use After Free (UAF) memory corruption vulnerability in Microsoft Office Word. A UAF occurs when a program continues to use memory after it has been freed, potentially allowing an attacker to manipulate memory contents and achieve code execution. The vulnerability can be triggered by opening a specially crafted malicious Word document.
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
- Low
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- Required
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/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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Check installed Microsoft Word versionOpen Microsoft Word, go to File > Account > About Word. Alternatively, open Command Prompt and run: winword.exe /? or check Programs and Features in Control Panel for Microsoft Office installation.Affected if The displayed version matches 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024, or shows as a Microsoft 365 Apps subscription version (any version).
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Check Office version via Windows RegistryOpen Registry Editor and navigate to HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\ClickToRun\Configuration or HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common\InstallRoot (path varies by version). Look for Version or Platform values.Affected if The registry shows a version string corresponding to Office 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024, or Microsoft 365 Apps.
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Verify Word executable versionLocate winword.exe (typically in C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\Office16 or similar), right-click > Properties > Details tab, check File Version.Affected if The file version corresponds to an affected Office/Word release: 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024, or a Microsoft 365 Apps version.
If Microsoft Word or Microsoft Office is installed and the version is 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024, or any Microsoft 365 Apps version, the environment falls within the affected range and is potentially vulnerable to this UAF when opening malicious Word documents.
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.
dbcve · scopedApply the latest Microsoft Office security updates when available. Until a patch is released, avoid opening Word documents from untrusted or unknown sources, and disable macros in Office to reduce attack surface.
Microsoft Office version with CVE-2025-49698 security patch applied (check msrc.microsoft.com for specific KB article)
- Check for Microsoft security updates for CVE-2025-49698 via the Microsoft Security Response Center (msrc.microsoft.com)
- Apply the appropriate security update for your specific Microsoft Office/Word version
- Verify the patch was successfully installed by checking installed updates
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing2.0 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 $1,984.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2025-49698 — 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-2025-49698 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