CVE-2026-55046
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 · uneditedOut-of-bounds read in Microsoft Office Excel allows an unauthorized attacker to disclose information locally.
In the news
Third-party coverage- Microsoft July 2026 Patch Tuesday fixes massive 570 flaws, 3 zero-days
- Microsoft CVE Summary - Bleeping Computer
Surfaced from public web coverage — external links open in a new tab.
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 confidenceOut-of-bounds read vulnerability in Microsoft Office Excel that allows a local, unauthorized attacker to read sensitive information from memory beyond allocated buffer boundaries, leading to information disclosure.
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= 2016all versionsall versionsall versionsall versions< 16.0.10417.20175CVSS 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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Check installed Excel versionOpen Excel, go to File > Account > About Excel, or right-click EXCEL.EXE in Program Files and select Properties > Details to view the version numberAffected if The version falls within any affected release (2016, 2019, 2021, 2024, 365 Apps, or any Microsoft 365 version)
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Check Microsoft Office versionOpen any Office app, go to File > Account, or run 'winver' command, or check Control Panel > Programs and Features for installed Microsoft Office entriesAffected if Office version is 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024, or part of Microsoft 365 subscription
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Check Microsoft 365 Apps versionOpen any Microsoft 365 app, go to File > Account > About [App], or use the Office Deployment Tool to query installed version via 'cscript //nologo %programfiles%\Microsoft Office\root\Office16\OSPP.VBS /dstatus'Affected if Any Microsoft 365 Apps for Enterprise or Personal installation is detected
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Check Office Online Server version (if applicable)On the Office Online Server, open IIS Manager, select the site, or run 'Get-OfficeWebAppsServer' PowerShell cmdlet, or check the Office Online Server build number in the admin centerAffected if Office Online Server version is lower than 16.0.10417.20175
You are affected if any version of Excel, Office 2016/2019/2021/2024, Microsoft 365 Apps, or Office Online Server below build 16.0.10417.20175 is installed, as the vulnerability impacts essentially all listed versions.
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 data16.0.10417.20175
Apply Microsoft security updates for Excel as they become available; until a patch is released, mitigate by restricting local system access, running Excel with least privilege, and exercising caution with untrusted Excel files.
- 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-2026-55046 — 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-2026-55046 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