Microsoft Office Use-After-Free Remote Code Execution Vulnerability
CVE-2026-20952 is a use-after-free vulnerability in Microsoft Office. Microsoft describes it as allowing an unauthorized attacker to execute code locally, and supporting reporting consistently characterizes it as a critical Office remote code execution issue. The flaw is memory-safety related and affects multiple Office product lines, including Microsoft Office LTSC for Mac 2021 and 2024, Office LTSC 2024, Office LTSC 2021, Office 2019, Office 2016, and Microsoft 365 Apps for Enterprise. Multiple sources in the provided content state that exploitation can be triggered through a crafted Office document and that the Preview Pane is a valid attack vector in some scenarios.
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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
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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
22 sources tracked across advisories, community write-ups, and news. New activity surfaces here as Mallory finds it.
Critical Microsoft Office remote code execution via maliciously crafted Office files; includes an Outlook preview-pane exploitation vector per the content.
A Microsoft Office use-after-free leading to local arbitrary code execution, potentially triggerable via Preview Pane (reduced/no user interaction in some scenarios).
A Microsoft Office use-after-free leading to local arbitrary code execution, potentially triggerable via Preview Pane (reduced/no user interaction in some scenarios).
A critical remote code execution vulnerability in Microsoft Office triggered via a malicious Office document (potentially exploitable via Outlook Preview Pane per the content).
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.