CVE-2026-56195
Summary
by MITRE • 07/14/2026
Out-of-bounds read in Microsoft Office allows an unauthorized attacker to disclose information locally.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 07/14/2026
This vulnerability represents a critical out-of-bounds read flaw within Microsoft Office applications that enables unauthorized attackers to access sensitive information locally on affected systems. The technical implementation involves memory access violations where the Office application attempts to read data from memory locations beyond the allocated buffer boundaries, potentially exposing confidential information stored in adjacent memory segments. Such vulnerabilities typically arise from insufficient input validation and bounds checking mechanisms within the application's parsing routines for document files, particularly those handling complex formatting or embedded objects.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple information disclosure, as it can potentially enable attackers to extract sensitive data such as encryption keys, passwords, temporary file contents, or other confidential information stored in memory. Attackers can leverage this weakness by crafting malicious Office documents that trigger the vulnerable code path when opened or processed by the target system. The local nature of the attack means that successful exploitation requires physical access or the ability to execute malicious documents on a victim's machine, but the implications for data confidentiality remain severe given the potential for accessing sensitive corporate or personal information.
From a cybersecurity framework perspective, this vulnerability aligns with CWE-129, which describes improper validation of length of buffer, and represents a specific instance of memory safety issues that commonly affect office productivity suites. The ATT&CK framework categorizes this under initial access and privilege escalation techniques, as attackers can use such information disclosure vulnerabilities to gather intelligence for further exploitation or to establish persistent access. The vulnerability demonstrates the ongoing challenges in securing complex software ecosystems where rich document formats require extensive parsing logic that creates numerous potential attack surfaces.
Mitigation strategies should prioritize immediate patch deployment from Microsoft, as the primary defense against this specific vulnerability. Organizations must implement comprehensive endpoint protection measures including application whitelisting, restricted user permissions, and regular security updates to prevent exploitation attempts. Additionally, network monitoring should be enhanced to detect anomalous document processing activities that might indicate exploitation attempts. Security awareness training for end users remains crucial to prevent social engineering attacks that deliver malicious Office documents containing this vulnerability. The incident response plan should include memory analysis capabilities to identify potential exploitation signatures and ensure rapid containment of any successful attacks.