Threats / Microsoft / CVE-2023-36563
CVE-2023-36563
· EUVD no mirror located
· GCVE no mirror located
Verified 2026-09-19
Microsoft WordPad vulnerability
Microsoft WordPad contains an input validation vulnerability allowing information disclosure. The flaw has been exploited in the wild.
Verdict
Today item — known-exploited.
An unspecified input validation flaw in WordPad enables attackers to extract sensitive information from affected systems. Active exploitation in the wild indicates immediate risk to users who open untrusted documents.
CISA KEV Yes · 2023-10-105EPSS 0.20719 (verify live)6CVSS 6.53CISA SSVC Exploitation: active · Automatable: no · Impact: total4
01
Is it exploitable?
— the evidence, ranked above the scoreReported exploitation
4 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 2023-10-10).
Probability (EPSS)
EPSS 0.20719 — modeled likelihood of exploitation activity.EPSS is a daily-changing model output — open the source for today's value.
Severity / affected
CVSS 6.5 (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N/E:P/RL:O/RC:C) · Affected: Microsoft, WordPad. Confirm exact fixed builds in the vendor advisory.CVSS — CNA-assigned (CVE.org), version 3.1, set at disclosure.
Weakness (CWE)
Mapped to CWE-20 Improper Input Validation.CWE — CNA-assigned (CVE.org); the weakness class drives how the flaw is exploited.
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 the same day 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.
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.
03
Why it matters
— the attack path, told twice: adversary, then board1
Front door — unauthenticated access narrative 1
Attacker
I craft a malicious WordPad document with invalid input that bypasses validation checks.
Business
Users unknowingly open documents that expose confidential data, creating compliance and privacy breach risks.
2
Keys to the kingdom — privilege/identity takeover narrative 2
Attacker
I distribute the weaponized document via email or file-sharing platforms to target organizations.
Business
Information disclosure incidents damage customer trust and trigger regulatory notification obligations.
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 itMicrosoft Threat Intelligencefinder
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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