Product:
Microsoft Office Excel
Summary
Untrusted pointer dereference in Microsoft Office Excel allows an unauthorized attacker to execute code locally. This vulnerability can lead to significant impacts on confidentiality, integrity, and availability. Attackers can exploit this flaw to gain unauthorized access and execute arbitrary code.
Details
| Severity | Base Score | CVE |
|---|---|---|
| HIGH | 7.8 | CVE-2026-20956 |
Exploitation
To exploit this vulnerability, an attacker must have local access to the affected system and require user interaction. By tricking the user into opening a malicious file or document, the attacker can leverage the untrusted pointer dereference to execute arbitrary code with the same privileges as the user. This can lead to unauthorized actions and potential system compromise.
Affected Products
- Microsoft Office Excel: A widely used spreadsheet application that may allow code execution through untrusted pointer dereference.
Mitigation
To mitigate this vulnerability, users should ensure that they apply the latest security updates provided by Microsoft. Additionally, users should avoid opening untrusted documents or files and implement security best practices to limit local access to sensitive systems.