Attack ChainAIDerived
Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain
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AccessCraft malicious PowerPoint file
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DeliveryDeliver via phishing or web link
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ExploitVictim opens document (UI:R)
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ExecutionUntrusted pointer dereference leaks memory
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ImpactDisclose sensitive data to attacker
Vulnerability Assessment
| Weakness |
CWE
ASVS 5.0
V15 - Secure Coding and Architecture Untrusted pointer prevention
|
| Exploitation Conditions | Exploitation requires the victim to open a specially crafted Microsoft Office PowerPoint file (UI:R); it cannot be triggered without that user action. No authentication is required (PR:N, unauthenticated), and no non-default configuration is indicated - any affected Office build that opens the malicious presentation is exposed. Affected products are Microsoft Office LTSC 2021 (before 16.0.14334.20974), Microsoft Office LTSC 2024 (before 16.0.17932.21056), and Microsoft 365 Apps for Enterprise (fixed build referenced via Microsoft's Office security releases page). The key limiting factors are the mandatory user interaction and the confidentiality-only impact (information disclosure, no code execution, integrity, or availability effect), which together cap realistic risk well below the raw reachability of the network attack vector. |
| Impact | Signals are consistently moderate-to-low, not high priority. CVSS is 6.5 (MEDIUM) with AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R - network-reachable and unauthenticated but gated by required user interaction (opening a crafted file), and impact is confidentiality-only (C:H/I:N/A:N), so this is a pure information-disclosure bug with no integrity or availability effect. CISA SSVC reinforces low urgency: Exploitation=none, Automatable=no, Technical Impact=partial. There is no CISA KEV listing and no public POC in the provided data, so exploitation status is 'no public exploit identified at time of analysis.' EPSS is NOT provided in the input, so exploitation probability cannot be quantified - this is a data gap, not a low score. The 'over a network' phrasing in the description is consistent with AV:N only in the sense of attacker-controlled file delivery; actual triggering still requires local victim action (UI:R), so treat 'network' as a delivery/reachability descriptor rather than a remote-code-exec style exposure. Net: a legitimate patch-in-normal-cycle item, elevated only by the ubiquity of Microsoft Office, not by any evidence of active or automatable exploitation. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | An attacker crafts a malicious PowerPoint presentation that triggers an untrusted pointer dereference (CWE-822) when parsed, then delivers it via phishing email or a web download link. When the victim opens the file (UI:R), the flaw dereferences an attacker-influenced pointer and leaks sensitive process memory, which can be disclosed back to the attacker. No public exploit code is identified at time of analysis, and the attack cannot proceed without the user opening the file. |
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Alert meAnalysisAIv1 – Oct 14, 2026
Information disclosure in Microsoft PowerPoint (Office LTSC 2021, Office LTSC 2024, and Microsoft 365 Apps for Enterprise) allows a remote, unauthenticated attacker to read memory contents from a victim's machine by convincing them to open a specially crafted presentation file. The vulnerability is an untrusted pointer dereference (CWE-822) that is only triggered through the required user action of opening the malicious document (UI:R), and its impact is limited to confidentiality (C:H) with no integrity or availability effect. No public exploit code has been identified at time of analysis, the exploit is not listed in CISA KEV, and CISA's SSVC assessment records Exploitation: none and Automatable: no, so signals point to moderate-to-low risk rather than an urgent, high-priority threat. A vendor patch is available from Microsoft. EPSS data was not provided in the available intelligence.
RemediationAI
Vendor-released patch: update to Microsoft Office LTSC 2021 16.0.14334.20974 or later, Microsoft Office LTSC 2024 16.0.17932.21056 or later, and the current Microsoft 365 Apps for Enterprise build listed at https://aka.ms/OfficeSecurityReleases; full guidance is in the MSRC advisory at https://msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/vulnerability/CVE-2026-88203. Where immediate patching is not possible, the primary compensating control is to prevent untrusted presentations from reaching the user at all - block PowerPoint attachments (.ppt, .pps, .pptx, .pptm, .potx, and related MIME types) and restrict them to trusted senders at the email and web gateways, and on managed endpoints enforce Office Protected View and File Block for presentations originating from the internet or other untrusted zones; note that Protected View reduces but does not eliminate exposure if a user explicitly enables editing, and File Block settings can break legitimate business workflows that rely on external decks, so scope them by origin rather than blocking all PowerPoint formats. Because the attack depends on a single user action (UI:R) with no authentication (PR:N), user awareness training against opening unexpected presentations adds marginal value at best and should not be treated as a substitute for patching. Disabling PowerPoint's embedded-object or external-content features can shrink the parsing surface but may impair normal document fidelity and is not a complete mitigation. There is no indication of active exploitation, so emergency out-of-band changes are not warranted; patch on a standard cycle tied to the MSRC release.
Affected VersionsENISA
Affected Packages
Source: OSV (Open Source Vulnerabilities)
Affects your stack
Affects 2 packages in euvd
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Technical ContextAI · show details
CWE-822 (Untrusted Pointer Dereference) describes a class of memory-safety faults in which a program takes a pointer value from an untrusted source and dereferences it without validating that it points to a legitimate, in-bounds object. In Microsoft PowerPoint this manifests while the application parses the internal structures of a presentation file - the OLE compound document container, the PowerPoint binary record stream, and associated pointer/offset fields that reference other structures within or outside the file buffer. A crafted file can supply a pointer-shaped value that PowerPoint treats as valid, causing the application to read from an unintended memory location and surface that content back to the attacker (for example, through rendered content, embedded objects, or error/formatting behavior), yielding information disclosure. The CVSS vector CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N confirms a network-reachable, low-complexity, unauthenticated attack that still requires the victim to open the file, is scoped to the vulnerable component, and affects only confidentiality. CPE data identifies the affected product family as Microsoft Office (Office LTSC 2021, Office LTSC 2024, and Microsoft 365 Apps for Enterprise); the corresponding CWE class is distinct from remote code execution, and the SSVC Technical Impact rating of 'partial' is consistent with a disclosure-only, non-code-execution outcome.
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Severity by source
AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
File is delivered remotely (AV:N) but must be opened by the user (UI:R) with no auth (PR:N); impact is memory disclosure only, so C:H, I:N, A:N.
Primary rating from Vendor (microsoft).
CVSS VectorVendor: microsoft
Lifecycle Timeline
2DescriptionCVE.org
Untrusted pointer dereference in Microsoft Office PowerPoint allows an unauthorized attacker to disclose information over a network.
Threat Intelligence Overview
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.
What every action level means
SSVC AssessmentENISA
Priority Score
Attack Technique
Information disclosure occurs when an application unintentionally exposes sensitive data that aids attackers in reconnaissance or directly compromises security.
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EUVD-2026-100187
GHSA-cwm6-gc85-89fr
NVD
CVE.org
EPSS
Vulnrichment
Exploit-DB