Product:
Microsoft Office Excel
Summary
Use after free 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-2026-40359 |
Exploitation
To exploit this vulnerability, an attacker must have local access to the affected system and require user interaction. By manipulating the application in a specific way, the attacker can trigger the use after free condition, allowing them to execute malicious code with the same privileges as the user.
Affected Products
- Microsoft Office Excel: A widely used spreadsheet application that may be vulnerable to local code execution due to a use after free condition.
Mitigation
To mitigate this vulnerability, users should ensure that they are running the latest version of Microsoft Office Excel with all security updates applied. Additionally, users should avoid opening untrusted documents and be cautious of any prompts that require user interaction.