CVE-2017-11774
Memory Safety in Microsoft Outlook 2010 … 2016
Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:HCVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.
Summary
CVE-2017-11774 is a high-severity Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer (CWE-119) vulnerability in Microsoft Outlook. Its CVSS base score is 7.8 (High).
Operationally, ranked in the top 0.9% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; CISA has added it to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.
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 Outlook 2010 SP2, Outlook 2013 SP1 and RT SP1, and Outlook 2016 are affected by CVE-2017-11774, a security feature bypass vulnerability that stems from how Microsoft Office handles objects in memory. The flaw is tracked under CWE-119 and carries a CVSS 3.1 score of 7.8, enabling an attacker to execute arbitrary commands.
An unauthenticated local attacker can exploit the issue by supplying a specially crafted object that triggers the memory-handling flaw when opened or processed by Outlook. Successful exploitation grants full control over confidentiality, integrity, and availability on the affected system, requiring only user interaction such as opening a malicious message or file.
The Microsoft Security Response Center advisory at https://portal.msrc.microsoft.com/en-US/security-guidance/advisory/CVE-2017-11774 and related bulletins at SecurityFocus and SecurityTracker provide official guidance on available patches and mitigations for the listed Outlook versions. Additional technical analysis appears in references such as the SensePost blog post on Outlook home-page vectors.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2017-3382
Vulnerability Data
Microsoft Outlook 2010 SP2, Outlook 2013 SP1 and RT SP1, and Outlook 2016 allow an attacker to execute arbitrary commands, due to how Microsoft Office handles objects in memory, aka "Microsoft Outlook Security Feature Bypass Vulnerability."
- CWE(s)
- KEV Date Added
- 03 November 2021
Related Threats
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Likely Mitigating Controls AI
Per-CVE control mapping for this CVE has not run yet; the list below is derived from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry.
Ongoing control assessments and code testing (static/dynamic analysis, fuzzing) surface memory buffer restriction failures, which are then remediated before release.
Managed runtimes used by platform-independent applications (e.g., JVM, CLR) enforce memory safety, preventing most buffer overflows that require direct memory manipulation.
Memory protections (e.g., W^X, ASLR) make exploitation of buffer-boundary violations far harder to turn into code execution.
Detects exploitation attempts that produce memory corruption, crashes, or anomalous behavior.
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.8.25 mandates secure SDLC practices (secure coding guidelines, security requirements, testing including code scans and penetration tests, developer training) that reach buffer management and can stop many buffer overruns from reaching production, but leaves a bounded remainder (e.g. flaws in non-software components, incomplete enforcement of guidelines, or post-deployment changes)
Application security requirements can specify memory-safety rules, but do not prescribe implementation details.
A.8.27 mandates security-by-design principles (e.g. least privilege, fail securely, distrust external input, hardening) plus design reviews that can catch and stop buffer-boundary errors before they reach code, but this is only one minority slice of CWE-119's broad surface (language-specific flaws, unsafe library use, compiler/runtime mitigations, and post-deployment instances remain outside its direct scope).
Secure coding standards explicitly forbid unsafe buffer operations, directly eliminating CWE-119.
Security testing in development catches out-of-bounds accesses before release, covering most instances of the weakness.
Hardening callouts derived
DISA STIG baselines are authored against specific weaknesses. Where this CVE cites a broad weakness class, the mapping is not asserted at that abstraction (owner ruling, 2026-09-25: grade only at Base and below), so no rule is shown here rather than a rule shown against the wrong grain.
- No fine-grained STIG row for CWE-119, a class-level weakness. Rules are authored against its narrower children: CWE-823.