CVE-2025-53736
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 · uneditedBuffer over-read in Microsoft Office Word allows an unauthorized attacker to disclose information 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 buffer over-read vulnerability in Microsoft Office Word allows a local attacker to read beyond the boundaries of a memory buffer, potentially exposing sensitive information from the application's memory space. The vulnerability is classified as local information disclosure with medium severity (CVSS 6.2).
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= 2016= 2019= 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
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/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.
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Verify Microsoft Word installationOpen Control Panel > Programs and Features, or run 'winword.exe /?' from Command Prompt to check if Word is installedAffected if Word is not installed on the system, the vulnerability does not apply
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Check installed Word version via About dialogOpen Microsoft Word, go to File > Account > About Word, or run 'winword.exe' and check the title bar for version numberAffected if The version matches one of the affected products: Word 2016, Office 2019, Office 2021, Office 2024, or any Microsoft 365 Apps version
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Confirm Office installation path and version fileNavigate to the Office installation directory (typically C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\OfficeXX or C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\root\OfficeXX) and check the version info of WINWORD.EXE by right-clicking the file and selecting Properties > DetailsAffected if The file version corresponds to an affected Office/Word version listed in the CVE
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Identify SharePoint Server presence if applicableCheck if the system runs Microsoft SharePoint Server or SharePoint Enterprise Server by looking for SharePoint services in Services.msc or checking installed programs for SharePoint 2016 or 2019Affected if SharePoint Server 2016 or 2019 is installed, as these products include vulnerable Word components
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Verify document handling is the attack vectorUnderstand that this vulnerability is triggered when Word processes a specially crafted document file - there is no specific configuration to disable, as the flaw exists in the document parsing logicAffected if Word can open and process document files, which is the default behavior required for the vulnerability to be triggered
The environment is affected if Microsoft Word 2016, Office 2019, Office 2021, Office 2024, Microsoft 365 Apps, or SharePoint Server 2016/2019 is installed, as the buffer over-read occurs during normal Word document processing.
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 patches for Office Word when released; until then, restrict local access to trusted users and monitor for suspicious Word document handling.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 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 $2,560.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2025-53736 — 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-2025-53736 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