Quick answers
- Is CVE-2026-40362 exploited in the wild?
- No. Junglewise Threat Intelligence has no report of CVE-2026-40362 being exploited in the wild.
- How severe is CVE-2026-40362?
- High severity, with a CVSS score of 7.8, published 12 May 2026.
- Which products and versions are affected?
- Microsoft Office Excel.
- Is there a fix for CVE-2026-40362?
- No fixed version is recorded yet. Check the vendor's advisory in the references below. If you run it, Junglewise drafts a mitigation that fits your setup and applies it once you approve, with senior security engineers behind it.
- How is CVE-2026-40362 attacked?
- It is attacked with local access, in a network appliance.
- Am I affected by CVE-2026-40362?
- Check whether you run Microsoft Excel. Junglewise does that check for you around the clock: connect your code, cloud and domains, and it matches new vulnerabilities like this one against what you actually run and tells you when one reaches you.
Technical details
A heap-based buffer overflow vulnerability (CWE-122) exists within Microsoft Office Excel. The flaw is triggered when the application fails to properly validate or bounds-check data while processing a specially crafted Excel file. An attacker can exploit this by tricking a user into opening a malicious document, leading to arbitrary code execution in the context of the current user. The attack vector is local, requiring user interaction (UI:R), and carries a CVSS base score of 7.8 due to the high impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability.
Affected products
- Microsoft Office Excel
Timeline
- 2026-05-12: disclosed
- 2026-05-12: advisory: Published by Microsoft and NVD