CVE-2018-0802 — Microsoft
HIGHCVE-2018-0802 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.8) Out-of-bounds Write vulnerability. It is in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2021-11-03) and has been used in ransomware campaigns — treat it as actively exploited and patch now. No vendor fix is recorded yet; mitigation options are listed below.
Equation Editor in Microsoft Office 2007, Microsoft Office 2010, Microsoft Office 2013, and Microsoft Office 2016 allow a remote code execution vulnerability due to the way objects…
Exploitation Status
Actively exploited in the wild
- Confirmed by CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2021-11-03 — including use in ransomware campaigns. Federal agencies were required to remediate by 2022-05-03.
- 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-2018-0802.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2018-0802 by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). In the shaded patch-first corner (EPSS 50%+, CVSS 7.0+).
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 396,257 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the ≥ 90% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.
Description
Equation Editor in Microsoft Office 2007, Microsoft Office 2010, Microsoft Office 2013, and Microsoft Office 2016 allow a remote code execution vulnerability due to the way objects are handled in memory, aka "Microsoft Office Memory Corruption Vulnerability". This CVE is unique from CVE-2018-0797 and CVE-2018-0812.
Affected Products
officemicrosoftoffice compatibility packmicrosoftwordmicrosoftResearch use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
Equation Editor in Microsoft Office 2007, Microsoft Office 2010, Microso…
Equation Editor in Microsoft Office 2007, Microsoft Office 2010, Microso…
Equation Editor in Microsoft Office 2007, Microsoft Office 2010, Microso…
Equation Editor in Microsoft Office 2007, Microsoft Office 2010, Microso…
Equation Editor in Microsoft Office 2007, Microsoft Office 2010, Microso…
Equation Editor in Microsoft Office 2007, Microsoft Office 2010, Microso…
Equation Editor in Microsoft Office 2007, Microsoft Office 2010, Microso…
Equation Editor in Microsoft Office 2007, Microsoft Office 2010, Microso…
Equation Editor in Microsoft Office 2007, Microsoft Office 2010, Microso…
Equation Editor in Microsoft Office 2007, Microsoft Office 2010, Microso…
Detection & mitigation playbook
VulnerabilityDetect
Identify every host running the affected component and compare the installed build against the fixed version below — for source-built or distro-packaged software the version string, not a lockfile, is the source of truth (`dpkg -l`, `rpm -q`, or the binary's own `--version`).
Remediation status
No fixed release is recorded for CVE-2018-0802 yet. Track the upstream advisory, and apply the exposure-reduction steps below in the meantime.
Mitigate without a patch
Constrain what reaches the vulnerable code: limit the size and shape of untrusted input, isolate the affected component in a sandboxed or least-privileged process, and enable the platform's memory-safety mitigations (ASLR, stack protector, hardened allocator) so an out-of-bounds access is more likely to fail closed than to be exploitable.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2018-0802 in your dependencies?
Find it across , including transitive dependencies.