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Office Click-To-Run EUVDEUVD-2026-100087

| CVE-2026-88109 HIGH
Use After Free (CWE-416)
2026-10-13 secure@microsoft.com GHSA-qqr5-6qjq-ff6q
7.8
CVSS 3.1 · Vendor: microsoft
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Attack ChainAIDerived

Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain

  1. Access
    Authenticate as low-privileged local user
  2. Exploit
    Trigger use-after-free in Office Click-To-Run
  3. Execution
    Reclaim freed object and corrupt memory
  4. Impact
    Elevate privileges to SYSTEM

Vulnerability Assessment

Weakness
CWE
ASVS 5.0
V15 - Secure Coding and Architecture Memory lifecycle management
MITRE ATT&CK

2 techniques across 2 tactics: Execution, Privilege Escalation

The technique list with ATT&CK links and the kill-chain view is part of the Basic plan and up.

Exploitation Conditions

Requires the attacker to already have local, authenticated low-privileged code execution on a Windows system with Microsoft Office installed via Click-To-Run (Microsoft 365 Apps for Enterprise, Office LTSC 2021, or Office LTSC 2024); exploitation is against such a default C2R deployment and needs no user interaction. The limiting factor is that this cannot be triggered remotely or by an unauthenticated actor (AV:L, PR:L) - it is a post-access privilege-escalation primitive, so an initial foothold is the prerequisite that bounds real-world risk; successful exploitation also depends on reliably winning the use-after-free reuse/heap-grooming to control the freed object.

Impact

This is a locally-exploitable elevation-of-privilege flaw (CVSS 3.1 7.8, AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N) in Microsoft Office Click-To-Run, driven by a CWE-416 use-after-free. The CVSS vector is internally consistent with the description: local attack vector, low complexity, and low privileges (an already-authenticated local user), with no user interaction and full C/I/A impact - i.e., a logged-in user escalating toward higher/SYSTEM privileges. No EPSS score, CISA KEV listing, or public POC is present in the supplied data, so there is no public exploit identified at time of analysis and no evidence of active exploitation; the risk signals here are the CVSS severity and the inherently reliable exploitation primitive that memory-corruption EoP bugs in ubiquitous software tend to attract. Net assessment: a genuine patch-priority item because of Office's enormous footprint and the local EoP nature (useful as a post-compromise/chaining step for malware and lateral movement), but NOT an emergency drop-everything issue absent any exploitation or POC evidence. Note a data conflict to resolve: the input Tags include 'Denial Of Service', which contradicts the description (privilege elevation) and the C:H/I:H/A:H impact vector - the primary impact is EoP, not DoS; treat the DoS tag with skepticism.

Exploit ScenarioDerived

An attacker who already has a low-privileged foothold on a Windows host (via phishing, a compromised standard-user account, or earlier malware) runs a crafted local process or triggers a specific Office Click-To-Run code path that reuses freed memory. By grooming the heap and controlling the reclaimed object, they corrupt memory to run attacker-controlled code at elevated privilege, converting limited user access into high/SYSTEM-level control. No public POC is identified in the provided data; the local, low-complexity, no-user-interaction vector makes reliable weaponization plausible if an exploit is developed.

This Week Schedule remediation this week. Why: HIGH severity (CVSS 7.0-8.9).
Patch available 0.3% exploitation probability (EPSS)

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AnalysisAIv1 – Oct 13, 2026

Local privilege escalation in Microsoft Office Click-To-Run allows an attacker who already holds a low-privileged foothold on a Windows host to turn a use-after-free (CWE-416) memory-corruption flaw into full compromise of the affected process context, rated CVSS 3.1 7.8 (AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H) with high confidentiality, integrity and availability impact and no user interaction required. The affected deployments are Microsoft Office installed and serviced through Click-To-Run: Microsoft 365 Apps for Enterprise, Office LTSC 2021, and Office LTSC 2024. Because the vector is AV:L/PR:L, this is an authenticated, post-access escalation primitive rather than a remote or unauthenticated attack path, and no public exploit code or confirmed active exploitation was identified at the time of analysis; Microsoft has released patched builds. The practical risk is bounded by the prerequisite initial foothold, and reliable exploitation additionally depends on winning the heap reuse/grooming required to control the freed object.

RemediationAI

Vendor-released patch: update to Microsoft Office LTSC 2024 build 16.0.17932.21056 or later, Microsoft Office LTSC 2021 build 16.0.14334.20974 or later, and the current Microsoft 365 Apps for Enterprise build published at https://aka.ms/OfficeSecurityReleases, following the vendor guidance at https://msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/vulnerability/CVE-2026-88109; keep Click-To-Run automatic updating enabled so these baselines are actually adopted, since disabling C2R servicing delays the fix and leaves the use-after-free reachable. Because the flaw is a local, authenticated elevation of privilege that requires an existing low-privileged foothold, the highest-value compensating controls are those that deny or contain that foothold: enforce least privilege and remove unnecessary local administrative rights (trade-off: may disrupt user-driven software installs and require help-desk workflows), apply application allowlisting so untrusted binaries cannot execute locally and reach the vulnerable code, enable Attack Surface Reduction rules that block Office from spawning child processes and block executable content from email and webmail, and restrict interactive/RDP logon on Office-bearing hosts to trusted staff (trade-off: operational friction for shared or jump hosts). Since no public exploit code or confirmed in-the-wild exploitation was identified, prioritize patch deployment on privileged and administrative workstations, and pair it with EDR monitoring for anomalous Click-To-Run/Office process behavior, unexpected child processes, and local privilege-transition events to catch exploitation attempts that the patch has not yet reached.

Affected VersionsENISA

Microsoft Office LTSC 2024 16.0.0 <16.0.17932.21056
Microsoft 365 Apps for Enterprise 16.0.1 <https://aka.ms/OfficeSecurityReleases
Microsoft Office LTSC 2021 16.0.1 <16.0.14334.20974

Affected Packages

euvd microsoft_office_ltsc_2021 fix: 16.0.14334.20974
euvd microsoft_office_ltsc_2024 fix: 16.0.17932.21056

Source: OSV (Open Source Vulnerabilities)

Affects your stack

Affects 2 packages in euvd

Checking this CVE against your own stacks and servers is part of the Basic plan and up.

Technical ContextAI · show details

Click-To-Run (C2R) is Microsoft's streaming installation and servicing technology for Office, used by Microsoft 365 Apps for Enterprise and the Office LTSC 2021/2024 perpetual builds; it runs a privileged background servicing component and update pipeline that handles package streaming, cached binaries and in-place patching. The root cause here is CWE-416, Use After Free: a heap object is released while a dangling reference to it survives, and that stale pointer is subsequently dereferenced or written. In a memory-corruption class like this, an attacker with local code execution can attempt to reallocate the freed chunk with attacker-controlled data, so the stale reference operates on data they influence - typically yielding memory corruption that can be escalated into arbitrary code execution inside the C2R/Office process context. The assessed vector (AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U) confirms the attack surface: the attacker must already be running low-privileged code locally (PR:L) on a Windows machine with a C2R-based Office installation, no user interaction is needed, and the blast radius stays within the same security scope (S:U) while still delivering high integrity, confidentiality and availability impact. Associated tags (Denial Of Service, Use After Free, Memory Corruption, Microsoft) align with a heap-lifetime bug that can both crash and corrupt the process; the main reliability constraint is heap grooming rather than any exotic precondition.

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Severity by source

Vendor (microsoft) PRIMARY 7.8 HIGH
AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
vuln.today AI 7.8 HIGH

Local-only use-after-free (AV:L) exploitable by an already-authenticated low-privileged user (PR:L) with no interaction, yielding full host impact; scope unchanged as it affects the same Windows system.

3.1 AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
4.0 AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

Primary rating from Vendor (microsoft).

CVSS VectorVendor: microsoft

Attack Vector
Local
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
Low
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

Lifecycle Timeline

2
Patch available
Oct 13, 2026 - 20:20 EUVD
CVE Published
Oct 13, 2026 - 19:21 cve.org
HIGH 7.8

DescriptionCVE.org

Use after free in Microsoft Office Click-To-Run allows an authorized attacker to elevate privileges locally.

Executive ViewAI

Why It Matters

A high-severity local privilege escalation flaw in Microsoft Office Click-to-Run affects the organization's Microsoft 365 Apps for Enterprise, Office LTSC 2021, and Office LTSC 2024 deployments - the productivity suite running on the large majority of our Windows endpoints. An attacker who has already obtained a low-privileged foothold on a Windows host could use this memory-corruption defect to escalate to full control of the affected process context, with high impact to data confidentiality, integrity, and availability, without requiring any user interaction. Leadership should treat this as a post-compromise escalation and lateral-movement enabler that raises the cost of any existing intrusion, but note that the risk is bounded by the prerequisite foothold and that a vendor fix is available today.

Business Impact: High
Compensating Controls

Apply vendor patch.

Threat Intelligence Overview

EPSS Score
0.3%
Top 78% exploitable
Prevalence
Ubiquitous
Office Click-To-Run is the default installer for M365/Office on most enterprise desktops
Vendor Status
Publicly Disclosed:No
Exploited:No
Latest Software Release:Exploitation Unlikely
Data Quality
5 sources
Confidence: Medium

How this decision was reached

The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.

SignalValue
Severity HIGH
CISA KEV No
Public POC No
EPSS 0.3%
Patch available Yes
Active threat No
Deciding rule
HIGH severity (CVSS 7.0-8.9)
What every action level means
Emergency Immediate action required. Criteria: CRITICAL + in CISA KEV (actively exploited) without patch, OR CRITICAL + EPSS > 30% without patch, OR CRITICAL + active threat signals without patch.
Act Now Prioritize within 24-48h. Criteria: in KEV with patch available, OR CRITICAL + public POC, OR HIGH + EPSS > 10%, OR CRITICAL + active threat, OR any CRITICAL severity.
This Week Schedule remediation this week. Criteria: HIGH severity (CVSS 7.0-8.9). Patch within normal change window.
This Month Plan within 30 days. Criteria: MEDIUM severity (CVSS 4.0-6.9), lower exploitation probability. Include in regular patch cycle.
Monitor Track and reassess. Criteria: LOW severity (CVSS 0.1-3.9), minimal exploitation risk. No immediate action needed.

SSVC AssessmentENISA

SSVC Decision
Defer
Exploitation
None
System Exposure· derived
Small
Automatable
No
Human Impact
High
Technical Impact
Total

Priority Score

39
Low Medium High Critical
KEV: 0
EPSS: 0
CVSS: +39
PoC: 0
Weaponized: 0
Threat intel: 0
Gov advisory: 0

Attack Technique

Use-after-free vulnerabilities occur when a program continues to access memory through a pointer after that memory has been deallocated.

Memory corruption occurs when a program writes data beyond the boundaries of allocated memory regions or accesses memory in unintended ways, violating the integrity of the process's address space.

Denial of Service attacks render applications or systems unavailable by overwhelming resources or triggering failure conditions.

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