CVE-2017-0037
HIGHCVE-2017-0037 is a high-severity (CVSS 8.1) CWE-843 vulnerability. It is in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2022-03-28) — treat it as actively exploited and patch now. O3 Security confirms whether CVE-2017-0037 is actually reachable in your code before you act, and blocks exploitation at runtime until you patch.
Microsoft Internet Explorer 10 and 11 and Microsoft Edge have a type confusion issue in the Layout::MultiColumnBoxBuilder::HandleColumnBreakOnColumnSpanningElement function in mshtml.dll,…
Exploitation Status
Actively exploited in the wild
- Confirmed by CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2022-03-28. Federal agencies were required to remediate by 2022-04-18.
- A successful exploit gives an attacker total control of the affected component, not partial access.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA (KEV catalog and SSVC triage) for CVE-2017-0037.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2017-0037 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE sits: patch-first territory.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 0 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the 50–90% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Description
Microsoft Internet Explorer 10 and 11 and Microsoft Edge have a type confusion issue in the Layout::MultiColumnBoxBuilder::HandleColumnBreakOnColumnSpanningElement function in mshtml.dll, which allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via vectors involving a crafted Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) token sequence and crafted JavaScript code that operates on a TH element.
Research use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
Microsoft Internet Explorer - 'mshtml.dll' Remote Code Execution (MS17-007)
by redr2e · Jul 24, 2017
Microsoft Internet Explorer 11 (Windows 7 x86) - 'mshtml.dll' Remote Code Execution (MS17-007)
by mschenk · Oct 17, 2017
Microsoft Edge / Internet Explorer - 'HandleColumnBreakOnColumnSpanningElement' Type Confusion
by Google Security Research · Feb 24, 2017
Detection & mitigation playbook
VulnerabilityDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for the affected component. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.
Remediation status
No patched version of the affected component has shipped for CVE-2017-0037 yet. Where your build allows, override or pin the dependency away from the vulnerable range, and apply any maintainer-recommended mitigation.
Mitigate without a patch
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 pinpoints whether CVE-2017-0037 is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.
Tailored to CVE-2017-0037. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2017-0037 in your dependencies?
O3 detects CVE-2017-0037 across dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.