Junglewise Threat Intelligence

CVE-2026-55140: Microsoft Office heap buffer overflow

CVE-2026-55140 · Severity: high · CVSS 7.8 · Published 2026-07-14

Technologies: Microsoft Office LTSC 2024, Microsoft Office LTSC for Mac 2024, Microsoft Office 365 for Mac, Microsoft Office LTSC for Mac 2021, Microsoft Office LTSC 2021, Microsoft Office 2016, Microsoft 365 Apps for Enterprise, Microsoft Office 2019. Vendors: Microsoft.

Executive brief

A security vulnerability has been identified in Microsoft Office, the widely used suite of productivity applications. An attacker could exploit this flaw to run unauthorized code on a user's computer, potentially leading to data theft or full system compromise. To be successful, the attacker must convince a user to open a specially crafted file.

Technical details

A heap-based buffer overflow (CWE-122) exists in multiple versions of Microsoft Office across Windows and macOS platforms. The vulnerability is triggered when the application fails to properly validate input while processing a malicious file, leading to memory corruption. An attacker can exploit this by convincing a user to open a specially crafted document, resulting in arbitrary code execution in the context of the current user. The attack vector is local, but requires user interaction (UI:R). Microsoft has released security updates to address this issue across affected versions including Office 2016, 2019, LTSC, and Microsoft 365 Apps.

Affected products

  • Microsoft Microsoft 365 Apps for Enterprise 16.0.1 to latest security release
  • Microsoft Microsoft Office 2016 16.0.0 to 16.0.5561.1000
  • Microsoft Microsoft Office 2019 19.0.0 to latest security release
  • Microsoft Microsoft Office 365 for Mac 1.0.0 to 16.111.26071215
  • Microsoft Microsoft Office LTSC 2021 16.0.1 to latest security release
  • Microsoft Microsoft Office LTSC 2024 16.0.0 to latest security release
  • Microsoft Microsoft Office LTSC for Mac 2021 16.0.1 to 16.111.26071215
  • Microsoft Microsoft Office LTSC for Mac 2024 16.0.0 to 16.111.26071215

Timeline

  • 2026-07-14: advisory: Initial publication by Microsoft and NVD
  • 2026-07-14: patched: Security updates made available via Microsoft Update Guide

References

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