Microsoft is investigating reports of a series of remote code execution vulnerabilities impacting Windows and Office products. Microsoft is aware of targeted attacks that attempt to exploit these vulnerabilities by using specially crafted Microsoft Office documents. An attacker could create a specially crafted Microsoft Office document that enables them to perform remote code execution in the context of the victim. However, an attacker would have to convince the victim to open the malicious file.
Upon completion of this investigation, Microsoft will take the appropriate action to help protect our customers. This might include providing a security update through our monthly release process or providing an out-of-cycle security update, depending on customer needs.
This CVE will be updated with new information and links to security updates when they become available. If you wish to be notified when these updates are released, we recommend that you register for the security notifications mailer to be alerted of content changes to this CVE. See Microsoft Technical Security Notifications and Security Update Guide Notification System News: Create your profile now – Microsoft Security Response Center.
Affected Platforms:
Windows 10 for x64-based Systems
Windows 10 for 32-bit Systems
Windows 10 Version 22H2 for 32-bit Systems
Windows 10 Version 22H2 for ARM64-based Systems
Windows 10 Version 22H2 for x64-based Systems
Windows 11 Version 22H2 for x64-based Systems
Windows 11 Version 22H2 for ARM64-based Systems
Windows 10 Version 21H2 for x64-based Systems
Windows 10 Version 21H2 for ARM64-based Systems
Windows 10 Version 21H2 for 32-bit Systems
Windows 11 version 21H2 for ARM64-based Systems
Windows 11 version 21H2 for x64-based Systems
Windows Server 2022 (Server Core installation)
Windows Server 2022
Windows Server 2019 (Server Core installation)
Windows Server 2019
Windows 10 Version 1809 for ARM64-based Systems
Windows 10 Version 1809 for x64-based Systems
Windows 10 Version 1809 for 32-bit Systems
Microsoft Word 2013 Service Pack 1 (64-bit editions)
Microsoft Word 2013 Service Pack 1 (32-bit editions)
Microsoft Word 2016 (64-bit edition)
Microsoft Word 2016 (32-bit edition)
Microsoft Office LTSC 2021 for 32-bit editions
Microsoft Office LTSC 2021 for 64-bit editions
Microsoft Office 2019 for 64-bit editions
Windows Server 2012
Windows Server 2008 R2 for x64-based Systems Service Pack 1 (Server Core installation)
Windows Server 2008 R2 for x64-based Systems Service Pack 1
Windows Server 2008 for x64-based Systems Service Pack 2 (Server Core installation)
Windows Server 2008 for x64-based Systems Service Pack 2
Windows Server 2008 for 32-bit Systems Service Pack 2 (Server Core installation)
Windows Server 2008 for 32-bit Systems Service Pack 2
Windows Server 2016 (Server Core installation)
Windows Server 2016
Windows 10 Version 1607 for x64-based Systems
Windows 10 Version 1607 for 32-bit Systems
Windows Server 2012 R2
Windows Server 2012 (Server Core installation)
Microsoft Office 2019 for 32-bit editions
Windows Server 2012 R2 (Server Core installation)
Security Updates
Software Version | Solution |
Windows 10 for x64-based Systems | Upgrade to Latest Security Patch |
Windows 10 for 32-bit Systems | Upgrade to Latest Security Patch |
Windows 10 Version 22H2 for 32-bit Systems | Upgrade to Latest Security Patch |
Windows 10 Version 22H2 for ARM64-based Systems | Upgrade to Latest Security Patch |
Windows 10 Version 22H2 for x64-based Systems | Upgrade to Latest Security Patch |
Windows 11 Version 22H2 for x64-based Systems | Upgrade to Latest Security Patch |
Windows 11 Version 22H2 for ARM64-based Systems | Upgrade to Latest Security Patch |
Windows 10 Version 21H2 for x64-based Systems | Upgrade to Latest Security Patch |
Windows 10 Version 21H2 for ARM64-based Systems | Upgrade to Latest Security Patch |
Windows 10 Version 21H2 for 32-bit Systems | Upgrade to Latest Security Patch |
Windows 11 version 21H2 for ARM64-based Systems | Upgrade to Latest Security Patch |
Windows 11 version 21H2 for x64-based Systems | Upgrade to Latest Security Patch |
Windows Server 2022 (Server Core installation) | Upgrade to Latest Security Patch |
Windows Server 2022 | Upgrade to Latest Security Patch |
Windows Server 2019 (Server Core installation) | Upgrade to Latest Security Patch |
Windows Server 2019 | Upgrade to Latest Security Patch |
Windows 10 Version 1809 for ARM64-based Systems | Upgrade to Latest Security Patch |
Windows 10 Version 1809 for x64-based Systems | Upgrade to Latest Security Patch |
Windows 10 Version 1809 for 32-bit Systems | Upgrade to Latest Security Patch |
Microsoft Word 2013 Service Pack 1 (64-bit editions) | Upgrade to Latest Security Patch |
Microsoft Word 2013 Service Pack 1 (32-bit editions) | Upgrade to Latest Security Patch |
Microsoft Word 2016 (64-bit edition) | Upgrade to Latest Security Patch |
Microsoft Word 2016 (32-bit edition) | Upgrade to Latest Security Patch |
Microsoft Office LTSC 2021 for 32-bit editions | Upgrade to Latest Security Patch |
Microsoft Office LTSC 2021 for 64-bit editions | Upgrade to Latest Security Patch |
Microsoft Office 2019 for 64-bit editions | Upgrade to Latest Security Patch |
Windows Server 2012 | Upgrade to Latest Security Patch |
Windows Server 2008 R2 for x64-based Systems Service Pack 1 (Server Core installation) | Upgrade to Latest Security Patch |
Windows Server 2008 R2 for x64-based Systems Service Pack 1 | Upgrade to Latest Security Patch |
Windows Server 2008 for x64-based Systems Service Pack 2 (Server Core installation) | Upgrade to Latest Security Patch |
Windows Server 2008 for x64-based Systems Service Pack 2 | Upgrade to Latest Security Patch |
Windows Server 2008 for 32-bit Systems Service Pack 2 (Server Core installation) | Upgrade to Latest Security Patch |
Windows Server 2008 for 32-bit Systems Service Pack 2 | Upgrade to Latest Security Patch |
Windows Server 2016 (Server Core installation) | Upgrade to Latest Security Patch |
Windows Server 2016 | Upgrade to Latest Security Patch |
Windows 10 Version 1607 for x64-based Systems | Upgrade to Latest Security Patch |
Windows 10 Version 1607 for 32-bit Systems | Upgrade to Latest Security Patch |
Windows Server 2012 R2 | Upgrade to Latest Security Patch |
Windows Server 2012 (Server Core installation) | Upgrade to Latest Security Patch |
Microsoft Office 2019 for 32-bit editions | Upgrade to Latest Security Patch |
Windows Server 2012 R2 (Server Core installation) | Upgrade to Latest Security Patch |
Mitigations:
The following mitigations exist.
Customers who use Microsoft Defender for Office are protected from attachments that attempt to exploit this vulnerability.
In current attack chains, the use of the Block all Office applications from creating child processes Attack Surface Reduction Rule will prevent the vulnerability from being exploited.
Organizations who cannot take advantage of these protections can set the FEATURE_BLOCK_CROSS_PROTOCOL_FILE_NAVIGATION registry key to avoid exploitation. No OS restart is required, but restarting the applications that have had the registry key added for them is recommended in case the value was already queried and is cached. Please note that while these registry settings would mitigate exploitation of this issue, it could affect regular functionality for certain use cases related to these applications. For this reason, we suggest testing. To disable the mitigation, delete the registry key or set it to “0”.
Add the following application names to this registry key as values of type REG_DWORD with data 1:
Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\FeatureControl\FEATURE_BLOCK_CROSS_PROTOCOL_FILE_NAVIGATION
Excel.exe
Graph.exe
MSAccess.exe
MSPub.exe
Powerpnt.exe
Visio.exe
WinProj.exe
WinWord.exe
Wordpad.exe
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