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365 AppsApplication · Microsoft

CVE-2025-54901

MEDIUM · 5.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-09-09
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
58/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
No privileges

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
Buffer over-read in Microsoft Office Excel 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 confidence

A buffer over-read vulnerability in Microsoft Office Excel allows a local attacker to read beyond allocated memory boundaries, potentially exposing sensitive information from the application's memory space. The vulnerability requires user interaction (opening a malicious Excel file) but does not require authentication.

MitigationApply Microsoft security updates for Microsoft Office Excel when released; until then, restrict access to local systems and exercise caution with Excel files from untrusted sources.

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 data
365 AppsApplication
Affected:all versions
ExcelApplication
Affected:= 2016
OfficeApplication
Affected:= 2019
Office Long Term Servicing ChannelApplication
Affected:= 2021= 2024

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
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
None
Availability
None

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Verify Microsoft Excel is installed
    Open Control Panel > Programs and Features, or run 'Get-ItemProperty HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\* | Select-Object DisplayName, DisplayVersion' in PowerShell to list installed Office components
    Affected if Microsoft Excel does not appear in the installed programs list, meaning the product is not present
  2. Determine the installed Excel version number
    Open Excel, go to File > Account > About Excel, or run 'winword.exe /?' from Command Prompt (if Office is installed, this displays version info), or check registry: HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Office\ClickToRun\Configuration or HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Excel\InstallRoot
    Affected if The displayed version matches one of the affected versions: Excel 2016, Excel 2019, Excel 2021, Excel 2024, or any Microsoft 365 Apps version containing Excel
  3. Confirm the specific Office product containing Excel
    Check if the installation is Microsoft 365 Apps (continuous update), Office LTSC 2021, Office LTSC 2024, Office 2019, or standalone Excel 2016 by examining the product name in Programs and Features or the registry keys under HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Office\
    Affected if The product is any of the listed affected versions (Office 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024, or Microsoft 365 Apps)
  4. Understand exploitation requirement
    Note that this vulnerability requires user interaction - specifically opening a malicious Excel file. There is no server-side configuration or service to check; the flaw exists in the Excel application code itself.
    Affected if Excel is installed and the version falls within the affected range - the vulnerability is present in the code regardless of configuration

A user is affected if Microsoft Excel is installed and the version is 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024, or part of Microsoft 365 Apps - the buffer over-read exists in the application code and triggers when a user opens a specially crafted Excel file.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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 data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Apply Microsoft security updates for Microsoft Office Excel when released; until then, restrict access to local systems and exercise caution with Excel files from untrusted sources.

Fix this in 365 Apps Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation3.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
13.0 hours of engineering $2,280
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Scan for this in your stack

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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-2025-54901 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