CVE-2026-32198
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 Excel 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 memory corruption vulnerability exists in Microsoft Office Excel where the software continues to use memory after it has been freed. This memory corruption can be leveraged by a local attacker to achieve arbitrary code execution, potentially allowing the attacker to run malicious code with the same privileges as the current user.
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= 2016= 2019= 2021= 2024< 16.0.10417.20113CVSS 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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Identify installed Microsoft Excel versionOpen Excel, go to File > Account > About Excel, or run 'winword.exe /?' from Command Prompt to check version information. For Office Online Server, check the build number in the Office Online Administration Center or via PowerShell Get-OfficeOnlineServerVersionAffected if The installed version matches one of the affected products: Microsoft 365 Apps (all versions), Excel 2016, Office 2019, Office LTSC 2021, Office LTSC 2024, or Office Online Server with build below 16.0.10417.20113
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Confirm Excel application is presentCheck for Excel.exe in typical installation paths such as C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\Office16\ or C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\root\Office16\, or verify via Windows Programs and FeaturesAffected if Excel.exe is found on the system, meaning the vulnerable component is present
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Verify Office update channel configuration (for subscription/365 versions)Open Excel, go to File > Account > Office Updates, or run 'cscript ospp.vbs /dstatus' from the Office installation directory to check the current update branch and installed versionAffected if The installed version has not received the security patch for this CVE (version not yet remediated)
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Check file parsing behaviorThis vulnerability is triggered when Excel parses specially crafted spreadsheet files. There is no specific feature toggle; the vulnerability exists in the core Excel file parsing engineAffected if Excel can open and parse .xlsx, .xls, or other supported workbook formats, meaning the vulnerable code path is accessible
A user is affected if Microsoft Excel or Microsoft Office with Excel is installed and the installed version falls within the listed affected product ranges and has not yet received the security patch for CVE-2026-32198.
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 data16.0.10417.20113
Apply Microsoft security updates for Microsoft Office Excel as soon as they become available. Until a patch is released, exercise caution with untrusted Excel files and consider using Microsoft Office's Protected View for files from external sources.
- 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-2026-32198 — 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-2026-32198 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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- 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