CVE-2024-30102 in Office
Summary
by MITRE • 06/11/2024
Microsoft Office Remote Code Execution Vulnerability
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 06/05/2025
This vulnerability represents a critical remote code execution flaw in Microsoft Office applications that allows attackers to execute arbitrary code on affected systems without user interaction. The vulnerability stems from improper input validation within Office's handling of specially crafted malicious files, particularly those containing embedded objects or malformed data structures. Attackers can exploit this weakness by delivering malicious Office documents through email attachments, web downloads, or compromised websites, making it a significant threat vector in targeted attacks and mass phishing campaigns.
The technical implementation involves memory corruption issues that occur when Office applications process untrusted input from document elements such as embedded objects, macros, or structured storage components. These flaws typically manifest as buffer overflows, use-after-free conditions, or integer overflows within the parsing routines of Office's core libraries. The vulnerability affects multiple Office products including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook, with different exploitation vectors depending on the specific application and document format being targeted. According to CWE classification systems, this vulnerability maps to several categories including CWE-121, CWE-125, and CWE-787, representing stack-based and heap-based buffer overflows as well as out-of-bounds reads and writes.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple remote code execution to encompass full system compromise capabilities. Once successfully exploited, attackers can establish persistent backdoors, escalate privileges, exfiltrate sensitive data, or deploy additional malware payloads. The vulnerability's exploitability is enhanced by the widespread use of Microsoft Office across enterprise environments and the common practice of opening email attachments without proper security screening. Organizations running affected versions of Office are particularly vulnerable to advanced persistent threats where attackers leverage this vector to gain initial access for broader network infiltration.
Security professionals should implement layered mitigation strategies including regular patch management, email filtering solutions that scan for malicious Office documents, and user education programs to reduce successful exploitation attempts. Network segmentation and application whitelisting can provide additional protection layers by restricting the execution of untrusted Office files. The ATT&CK framework categorizes this vulnerability under T1203 - Exploitation for Client Execution and T1059 - Command and Scripting Interpreter, highlighting the attack patterns that leverage such flaws. Organizations should also deploy endpoint detection and response solutions capable of identifying suspicious Office process behaviors and anomalous file execution patterns. Microsoft recommends immediate deployment of security updates and implementation of administrative controls to reduce attack surface exposure while maintaining operational continuity in enterprise environments.