Cyber Resilience

CVE-2023-32029

Memory Safety in Microsoft Excel 2013 … 2016

High EPSSMemory Safety
Published
14 June 2023
Modified
04 November 2025
Patch / advisory
View advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 7.8
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS Score 0.54 99th percentile
Risk Priority 78 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2023-32029 is a high-severity Out-of-bounds Read (CWE-125) vulnerability in Microsoft Excel. Its CVSS base score is 7.8 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068); ranked in the top 1% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV 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 Excel contains a remote code execution vulnerability tracked as CVE-2023-32029. The flaw is an out-of-bounds read (CWE-125) that affects the application's handling of specially crafted spreadsheet files and carries a CVSS 3.1 base score of 7.8.

An attacker can exploit the issue by convincing a user to open a malicious Excel document on a local system. Because the attack vector requires user interaction but no privileges or additional authentication, successful exploitation grants the attacker the ability to execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the current user, resulting in full confidentiality, integrity, and availability impact.

Microsoft has published security updates addressing the vulnerability through its update guide, and Cisco Talos has released a detailed technical analysis (TALOS-2023-1730) that includes indicators for detection and verification of the fix.

The EPSS score for this CVE currently stands at 0.4033, indicating a moderate and stable probability of exploitation in the wild.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

Microsoft Excel Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

CWE(s)
CWE-125NVD-CWE-noinfo

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1068 Exploitation for Privilege Escalation Privilege Escalation
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to elevate privileges.
attack.mitre.org →
T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application Initial Access
Adversaries may attempt to exploit a weakness in an Internet-facing host or system to initially access a network.
attack.mitre.org →
T1203 Exploitation for Client Execution Execution
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in client applications to execute code.
attack.mitre.org →
T1210 Exploitation of Remote Services Lateral Movement
Adversaries may exploit remote services to gain unauthorized access to internal systems once inside of a network.
attack.mitre.org →
T1211 Exploitation for Stealth Stealth
Adversaries may exploit vulnerabilities to evade detection by hiding activity, suppressing logging, or operating within trusted or unmonitored components.
attack.mitre.org →
T1212 Exploitation for Credential Access Credential Access
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to collect credentials.
attack.mitre.org →
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2026-40360Same product: Microsoft 365 Apps
CVE-2026-21261Same product: Microsoft 365 Apps
CVE-2023-36766Same product: Microsoft 365 Apps
CVE-2025-62564Same product: Microsoft 365 Apps
CVE-2025-60727Same product: Microsoft 365 Apps
CVE-2025-60726Same product: Microsoft 365 Apps
CVE-2026-26109Same product: Microsoft 365 Apps
CVE-2025-48812Same product: Microsoft 365 Apps
CVE-2025-62202Same product: Microsoft 365 Apps
CVE-2025-54898Same product: Microsoft 365 Apps

Affected Assets

microsoft
365 apps
all versions
microsoft
excel
2013, 2016
microsoft
office
2019
microsoft
office long term servicing channel
2021
microsoft
office online server
all versions

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 mostly match
prevents

Secure-development practices such as bounds checking and memory-safe languages directly prevent out-of-bounds reads.

ID.RA-01 partial match
prevents

Vulnerability scanning and recording can discover instances of out-of-bounds reads after code is deployed.

PR.PS-02 partial match
prevents

Routine patching replaces vulnerable code containing out-of-bounds read flaws.

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.8.29 Security testing in development and acceptance mostly match
finds

Security testing in development and acceptance includes fuzzing and static analysis that detect out-of-bounds read defects before release.

A.8.15 Logging partial match
finds

Logging can record evidence of an out-of-bounds read but does not prevent the weakness itself.

A.8.25 Secure development life cycle partial match
prevents

Secure development life cycle mandates input validation and bounds checking that directly prevent out-of-bounds reads.

A.8.26 Application security requirements partial match
prevents

Application security requirements include explicit bounds and memory-safety specifications that mitigate buffer over-reads.

A.8.27 Secure system architecture and engineering principles partial match
prevents

Secure system architecture and engineering principles require memory-safe design patterns and runtime protections against out-of-bounds access.

A.8.28 Secure coding partial match
prevents

Secure coding standards explicitly forbid unsafe pointer arithmetic and mandate bounds-checked reads, eliminating CWE-125.

References