Memory corruption in Microsoft products - CVE-2009-0556

 

Memory corruption in Microsoft products - CVE-2009-0556

Published: December 20, 2016 / Updated: January 7, 2026


Vulnerability identifier: #VU1412
CSH Severity: Critical
CVSS v4.0: CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:A/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:A/U:Red
CVE-ID: CVE-2009-0556
CWE-ID: CWE-119
Exploitation vector: Remote access
Exploit availability: The vulnerability is being exploited in the wild
Vendor: Microsoft
Affected software:
Microsoft PowerPoint
Microsoft Office for macOS
Microsoft Office

Detailed vulnerability description

The vulnerability allows a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code on the target system.

The weakness exists due to boundary error when handling malformed PowerPoint files. A remote attacker can create a specially crafted PowerPoint file, trick the victim into opening it, trigger memory corruption and execute arbitrary code on the target system with privileges of the current user.

Successful exploitation of the vulnerability results in arbitrary code execution on the vulnerable system.

Note: this vulnerability was being actively exploited.

How to mitigate CVE-2009-0556


Sources