Threats / Microsoft / CVE-2017-0199
CVE-2017-0199
· EUVD no mirror located
· GCVE no mirror located
Verified 2026-09-19
Microsoft Office and WordPad vulnerability
Microsoft Office and WordPad contain a remote code execution vulnerability in file parsing. The flaw enables attackers to execute arbitrary code through specially crafted documents.
Verdict
Today item, not a backlog item.
A critical remote code execution vulnerability in Microsoft Office and WordPad file parsing. Exploitation is active in the wild and associated with ransomware campaigns, presenting immediate risk to organizations and users opening untrusted documents.
CISA KEV Yes · 2021-11-034Ransomware use Flagged4EPSS 0.99933 (verify live)5Exploit Weaponized · public PoC6CVSS 7.8 (CISA)3CISA SSVC Exploitation: active · Automatable: no · Impact: total3
01
Is it exploitable?
— the evidence, ranked above the scoreExploit available
Fully weaponized — public exploit code is cataloged for this vulnerability.We link the existence of the exploit; we do not host or redistribute payloads.
Reported exploitation
140 independent public reports of in-the-wild exploitation are cataloged.Distinct reporting sources (vendor, incident response, government); open them for the underlying claims.
Exploited in the wild
Listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2021-11-03), flagged for known ransomware use.
Probability (EPSS)
EPSS 0.99933 — modeled likelihood of exploitation activity.EPSS is a daily-changing model output — open the source for today's value.
Severity / affected
CVSS 7.8 (CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H) · Affected: Microsoft, Office and WordPad. Confirm exact fixed builds in the vendor advisory.CVSS — CISA-assigned via the ADP container (CVE.org), version 3.1; the CNA left no metrics, so CISA's own score is used ahead of NVD.
CISA SSVC (triage disposition)
Exploitation: active · Automatable: no · Technical Impact: totalCISA's own stakeholder-specific triage inputs, published in the CVE record (CISA Coordinator role). NOTE: this is CISA's three decision points; the final Act/Attend/Track decision also requires a Mission & Well-being input not published here, so no overall decision is asserted.
Currency of the record
CISA added this to its KEV catalog 1666 days after the CVE record was published.KEV lag = CISA-KEV dateAdded − CVE.org datePublished; a floor on how long the known-exploited flaw sat in the public record before the federal catalog listed it. Severity/weakness here is CNA- or CISA-assigned (current at disclosure), independent of NVD's analysis backlog.
Public exploit available
Public exploit tooling is catalogued for this CVE (a functional/weaponized public exploit). Catalog entries: Metasploit module. We link the catalog page(s) only — no payload or code is hosted or restated here.Link, never host — the catalog page is the source; basicsecurity.net does not redistribute payloads.
02
Who’s exploiting it?
— attribution turns risk into urgencyAttribution not established
No confirmed (advisory-backed) threat-actor attribution is established for this record. Absence of a named actor is not absence of compromise — see Coverage & confidence.
Lower-confidence links — not headline attribution
These are not confirmed attribution and do not name this record’s headline actor. Each is tier-labeled and cited; an inferred link is a structural ATT&CK chain (a group uses a tool whose reference cites this CVE), never a statement that the source names the group.
03
Why it matters
— the attack path, told twice: adversary, then board1
Front door — unauthenticated access narrative 1
Attacker
Craft a malicious Office or WordPad document that exploits the file parsing vulnerability.
Business
Attackers gain ability to execute code with user privileges on affected systems.
2
Keys to the kingdom — privilege/identity takeover narrative 2
Attacker
Distribute the weaponized document via email, web, or file-sharing platforms to target users.
Business
Widespread exposure across enterprise and consumer user bases increases infection surface.
3
Lateral reach — past segmentation narrative 3
Attacker
Execute ransomware payload or establish persistent access upon successful exploitation.
Business
Systems become compromised, leading to data encryption, operational disruption, and financial extortion.
04
What to do
— defensible action- Remediate per the vendor advisory — confirm the fixed build for your version and verify exposure.1
Say it to the boardA vulnerability with this evidence profile is a defensible budget line, not a backlog ticket — fund the change against the proof above.
05
Coverage & confidence
— what we know, and what we don’tEstablished (cited)
Coverage gaps — stated, not hidden
Disclosure & credit2
Catalogued by microsoftCNA
Credited with finding itRyan Hanson ( @Ryhanson ) of Optiv Microsoft MSRC Vulnerabilities and Mitigations Team Microsoft Office Security Team Gefinder
Found an error? Propose a correction.
A correction is a cited counter-claim — it must cite a source,
gets reviewed by a second human, and is never auto-applied. See the
correction convention and our identity
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