Microsoft Office Heap-Based Buffer Overflow RCE
CVE-2025-49697 is a Microsoft Office remote code execution vulnerability caused by a heap-based buffer overflow. Microsoft classifies the weakness as CWE-122. The flaw affects Microsoft Office and was included in Microsoft’s July 2025 security updates. Microsoft states that successful exploitation allows an unauthorized attacker to execute code locally. Although the vulnerability is categorized as remote code execution, the published CVSS vector identifies a local attack vector (CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H), and Microsoft clarified that the term remote refers to the attacker’s location rather than a network-reachable service. Microsoft also states that the Preview Pane is an attack vector, indicating exploitation may be triggered through crafted Office content handled by Office rendering/parsing components.
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Impact, mitigation & remediation
What it means. What to do now. Patch path, mitigations, and the assume-compromise checklist.
Impact
What an attacker gets, and what they’ve been doing with it.
Mitigation
If you can’t patch tonight, do this now.
Remediation
Patch, then assume compromise.
Exploits
No public exploits tracked yet. Mallory keeps watching.
No public exploit code observed for this vulnerability.
Affected products & vendors
Products and vendors Mallory has correlated with this vulnerability. Open in Mallory to drill down to specific CPE configurations and version ranges.
Vendor-confirmed product mapping. Mallory continuously reconciles this list against your asset inventory.
Recent activity
3 sources tracked across advisories, community write-ups, and news. New activity surfaces here as Mallory finds it.
A Microsoft Office remote code execution vulnerability affecting Office/365, including Mac versions; Mac patches were not yet available at the time of the report.
A critical heap-based buffer overflow vulnerability in Microsoft Office that allows unauthorized local code execution and may be triggered via the Preview Pane.
A remote code execution vulnerability in Microsoft Office/Microsoft Word.
The version that knows your environment.
Query your assets running an affected version, and investigate the blast radius.
Every observed campaign linking this CVE to a named adversary.
Malware families riding this exploit, with evidence and IOCs.
YARA, Sigma, Snort, and vendor rules, auto-deployed to your SIEM.
Cross-references every affected SKU, including bundled OEM variants.
Community discussion across Reddit, Mastodon, and other social sources.