Security Resilience

CVE-2015-1770

Memory Safety in Microsoft Office 2013

CISA KEVActive ExploitationEUVD ExploitedMemory Safety
Published
10 June 2015
Modified
22 April 2026
KEV Added
28 March 2022
Patch / advisory
View advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 8.8
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS Score 0.35 98th percentile
Risk Priority 90 floored blend · peak EPSS

CVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.

Summary

CVE-2015-1770 is a high-severity Access of Uninitialized Pointer (CWE-824) vulnerability in Microsoft Office. Its CVSS base score is 8.8 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Steganography (T1001.002); ranked in the top 2% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; CISA has added it to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog.

Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary

Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.

Microsoft Office 2013 SP1 and 2013 RT SP1 contain an uninitialized memory use vulnerability, identified as CVE-2015-1770 and assigned CWE-824, that permits remote code execution when a crafted Office document is processed. The flaw received a CVSS 3.1 base score of 8.8 reflecting network attack vector, low attack complexity, no required privileges, and required user interaction.

An attacker can deliver the malicious document through typical channels such as email or web downloads; successful exploitation grants arbitrary code execution on the target system, with high impact to confidentiality, integrity, and availability.

Microsoft security bulletin MS15-059 describes the issue and supplies the corresponding security updates for affected Office installations.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

Microsoft Office 2013 SP1 and 2013 RT SP1 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via a crafted Office document, aka "Microsoft Office Uninitialized Memory Use Vulnerability."

CWE(s)
CWE-824
KEV Date Added
28 March 2022

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1001.002 Steganography Command And Control
Adversaries may use steganographic techniques to hide command and control traffic to make detection efforts more difficult.
attack.mitre.org →
T1003.003 NTDS Credential Access
Adversaries may attempt to access or create a copy of the Active Directory domain database in order to steal credential information, as well as obtain other information about domain members such as devices, users, and access rights.
attack.mitre.org →
T1003.004 LSA Secrets Credential Access
Adversaries with SYSTEM access to a host may attempt to access Local Security Authority (LSA) secrets, which can contain a variety of different credential materials, such as credentials for service accounts.
attack.mitre.org →
T1003.006 DCSync Credential Access
Adversaries may attempt to access credentials and other sensitive information by abusing a Windows Domain Controller's application programming interface (API)(Citation: Microsoft DRSR Dec 2017) (Citation: Microsoft GetNCCChanges) (Citati…
attack.mitre.org →
T1003.007 Proc Filesystem Credential Access
Adversaries may gather credentials from the proc filesystem or `/proc`.
attack.mitre.org →
T1003.008 /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow Credential Access
Adversaries may attempt to dump the contents of <code>/etc/passwd</code> and <code>/etc/shadow</code> to enable offline password cracking.
attack.mitre.org →
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2015-1642Same product: Microsoft Officeboth on KEV
CVE-2013-1331Same product: Microsoft Officeboth on KEV
CVE-2017-0261Same product: Microsoft Officeboth on KEV
CVE-2017-0262Same product: Microsoft Officeboth on KEV
CVE-2017-11882Same product: Microsoft Officeboth on KEV
CVE-2010-3333Same product: Microsoft Officeboth on KEV
CVE-2017-8570Same product: Microsoft Officeboth on KEV
CVE-2022-21971Same vendor: Microsoftboth on KEV
CVE-2015-2545Same product: Microsoft Officeboth on KEV
CVE-2006-2492Same product: Microsoft Officeboth on KEV

Affected Assets

microsoft
office
2013

Mitigating Controls

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

PR.PS-06 partial match
blocks

Secure SDLC practices directly prevent uninitialized pointer bugs via coding standards, analysis, and reviews, but eliminating this single weakness only partially fulfills the broader control.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

A.5.14 Information transfer partial match
removes
A.5.15 Access control partial match
removes
A.5.16 Identity management partial match
removes
A.5.17 Authentication information partial match
removes
A.5.18 Access rights partial match
removes
A.5.32 Intellectual property rights partial match
removes

References