Evidence used
- No CISA KEV confirmation is currently recorded.
- EPSS is 8.62% for the current model date.
BlackTreeCVE IntelligenceFull vulnerability report · 2018
CVE-2018-8627High confidence
Microsoft Microsoft Office: Use of Uninitialized Resource
Microsoft · Microsoft Office
5.5MediumCVSS 3.0
Scheduled
Patch availableMedium technical severity with no CISA KEV confirmation; remediate through the normal risk-based patch cycle unless local exposure raises the priority.
R
Open reassessment dashboard →Operational reassessment
Published severity in operational context
Published severityMedium→Operational priority:Medium, unchanged from published severity.unchanged
Compensating controls
- Validate the affected product branch and deploy the verified fixed release.
- Restrict local access and enforce least privilege on affected hosts.
- Monitor vendor guidance and exploitation sources for a material change.
Verification
- Confirm that the asset runs Microsoft Microsoft Office and falls inside the recorded affected range.
- Verify the installed build against the product-specific fixed version after deployment.
- Validate exposure, authentication requirements and compensating controls in the actual environment.
- Reopen this reassessment when CVSS, KEV, EPSS, exploit evidence or remediation changes.
Medium technical severity with no CISA KEV confirmation; remediate through the normal risk-based patch cycle unless local exposure raises the priority.
Patch available01
What, why and how
An information disclosure vulnerability exists when Microsoft Excel software reads out of bound memory due to an uninitialized variable, which could disclose the contents of memory, aka "Microsoft Excel Information Disclosure Vulnerability." This affects Microsoft Office, Office 365 ProPlus, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Excel Viewer, Excel. This CVE ID is unique from CVE-2018-8598.
What
An information disclosure vulnerability exists when Microsoft Excel software reads out of bound memory due to an uninitialized variable, which could disclose the contents of memory, aka "Microsoft Excel Information Disclosure Vulnerability." This affects Microsoft Office, Office 365 ProPlus, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Excel Viewer, Excel. This CVE ID is unique from CVE-2018-8598.
Why
The product uses or accesses a resource that has not been initialized.
How
An attacker operating through local access may attempt exploitation without authentication after a user interaction. If successful, the issue may obtain information outside the intended access boundary.
What
An information disclosure vulnerability exists when Microsoft Excel software reads out of bound memory due to an uninitialized variable, which could disclose the contents of memory, aka "Microsoft Excel Information Disclosure Vulnerability." This affects Microsoft Office, Office 365 ProPlus, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Excel Viewer, Excel. This CVE ID is unique from CVE-2018-8598.
Why
The product uses or accesses a resource that has not been initialized.
How
An attacker operating through local access may attempt exploitation without authentication after a user interaction. If successful, the issue may obtain information outside the intended access boundary.
02
Exploit reality and attack path
CVSS severity, EPSS forecast probability, public exploit material and CISA-confirmed exploitation are separate signals.
Observed exploitation No confirmed evidence
?
Confirmed exploitation and public exploit material are separate signals. Attacks can occur without public proof-of-concept or exploit code.No CISA KEV match was present at the last successful refresh. This means no confirmation from that source, not proof of no exploitation.
Public PoC / exploit material None recorded
?
Confirmed exploitation and public exploit material are separate signals. Attacks can occur without public proof-of-concept or exploit code.No exploit-tagged reference or CISA SSVC proof-of-concept state is currently recorded. Research may still exist outside the structured feeds.
- Likely attack path
- local access → Use of Uninitialized Resource → obtain information outside the intended access boundary
- Attack surface
- Local
- Privileges required
- None: unauthenticated exploitation is possible
- User interaction
- Required interaction required
- Attack complexity
- Low: no specialised conditions are recorded
- Security boundary
- Unchanged: impact remains within the vulnerable component's security authority
- Weakness
?
CWE means Common Weakness Enumeration: a standard category for the underlying weakness. - CWE-908 ↗
CWE-908: Use of Uninitialized Resource. The product uses or accesses a resource that has not been initialized.
- CVSS vector
?
CVSS means Common Vulnerability Scoring System. The vector records the metric values used to calculate technical severity. CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:NCommon Vulnerability Scoring System 3.0: the compact vector below is decoded into plain language.
AVLocalAttack vector: The attacker needs local access to the vulnerable system.ACLowAttack complexity: No specialised conditions are required beyond attacker-controlled input.PRNonePrivileges required: The attacker does not need an account or existing privileges.UIRequiredUser interaction: Another user must perform an action for exploitation to succeed.SUnchangedScope: The security impact remains within the vulnerable component's authority.CHighConfidentiality impact: A successful attack can cause a major loss.INoneIntegrity impact: No direct loss is represented by this metric.ANoneAvailability impact: No direct loss is represented by this metric.- Post-exploitation / living off the land
- The issue can support a local privilege or sandbox boundary transition; normal system utilities may then be available in the gained context.
03
Patch and workaround
Operational remediation based on structured source evidence.
- Status
?
Patch availability is based on structured fixed-version fields and authoritative update references. If no fix is verified, check the vendor advisory before making a change. - Patch available
- Affected
- Microsoft Office: 2010 Service Pack 2 (32-bit editions), 2010 Service Pack 2 (64-bit editions), 2016 for Mac, 2019 for 32-bit editions, 2019 for 64-bit editions, 2019 for Mac, Compatibility Pack Service Pack 3
- Microsoft Excel: 2010 Service Pack 2 (32-bit editions), 2010 Service Pack 2 (64-bit editions), 2013 RT Service Pack 1, 2013 Service Pack 1 (32-bit editions), 2013 Service Pack 1 (64-bit editions), 2016 (32-bit edition), 2016 (64-bit edition)
- Microsoft Excel Viewer: 2007 Service Pack 3
- Excel: Services on Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 Service Pack 2
- Office: 365 ProPlus for 32-bit Systems, 365 ProPlus for 64-bit Systems
- Action
- Review the linked authoritative reference and apply the recorded fixed release appropriate to the affected product branch.
- Workaround
- No verified workaround is recorded. Limit untrusted access and use least privilege until authoritative guidance is available.
04
Evidence and provenance
Published 12 Dec 2018 · Last source change 5 Aug 2024, 07:02 UTC · CWE-908 · Use of Uninitialized Resource
CVE recordCVE.org · 5.1
CVSS sourceNIST NVD
EPSS source FIRST · tracked since 2026-09-01
?
The date BlackTree first stored a score for this CVE from the daily FIRST EPSS feed.European sourceENISA EUVD · EUVD-2018-20239
Product sourceCNA
Remediation sourceCVE/CNA references
CWE sourceNIST NVD
NVD statusNVD modified after enrichment
Core structured fields are present and their contributing authorities are shown above.
Material change intelligence
View recent updates ↗What changed after publication
- ENISA EUVD mappingEUVD-2018-20239 was added to the official ENISA EUVD mapping for this CVE.ENISA EUVD ↗
- Before
- not recorded
- After
- {"euvdId":"EUVD-2018-20239"}
- Vendor guidanceAuthoritative vendor guidance changed: added patch: portal.msrc.microsoft.com/CVE-2018-8627; added remediation: portal.msrc.microsoft.com/CVE-2018-8627.portal.msrc.microsoft.com ↗
- Before
- no authoritative guidance recorded
- After
- patch: portal.msrc.microsoft.com/CVE-2018-8627 · remediation: portal.msrc.microsoft.com/CVE-2018-8627
- Affected versionsThe structured affected or fixed version information changed.CNA ↗
- Before
- 2010 Service Pack 2 (32-bit editions); 2010 Service Pack 2 (64-bit editions); 2016 for Mac; 2019 for 32-bit editions; 2019 for 64-bit editions; 2019 for Mac; Compatibility Pack Service Pack 3; 2013 RT Service Pack 1 · Fixed: No fixed version is explicitly recorded in the structured CVE data.
- After
- 2010 Service Pack 2 (32-bit editions); 2010 Service Pack 2 (64-bit editions); 2016 for Mac; 2019 for 32-bit editions; 2019 for 64-bit editions; 2019 for Mac; Compatibility Pack Service Pack 3; 2013 RT Service Pack 1 · Fixed: An authoritative update reference is available, but the fixed version is not recorded in the structured CVE fields. Check the linked vendor advisory for the applicable release.
- Remediation statusRemediation status changed from Awaiting fix to Patch available.portal.msrc.microsoft.com ↗
- Before
- Awaiting fix
- After
- Patch available
- SeveritySeverity changed from Unknown to Medium.NIST NVD ↗
- Before
- Unknown
- After
- Medium
- CVSS scoreCVSS score changed from not recorded to 5.5 (CVSS 3.0 · NIST NVD · CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N).NIST NVD ↗
- Before
- not recorded
- After
- 5.5 (CVSS 3.0 · NIST NVD · CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N)
- Catalogue recordCVE added to the BlackTree catalogue.CNA ↗
CVE published
Fixed release or patch reference recorded
Technical terms and abbreviations used in this report
- CVE
- Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures: the public identifier for one disclosed vulnerability.
- CVSS
- Common Vulnerability Scoring System: a technical severity framework; it is not patching priority by itself.
- EPSS
- Exploit Prediction Scoring System: FIRST's estimate of the probability that exploitation activity will be observed in the next 30 days; it is a forecast, not confirmation.
- CWE
- Common Weakness Enumeration: the standard category describing the underlying software or hardware weakness.
- CNA
- CVE Numbering Authority: an organisation authorised to assign and publish CVE records.
- CISA ADP
- Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Authorized Data Publisher: structured enrichment added to a CVE record.
- NVD
- National Vulnerability Database: NIST's enrichment service for CVE records.
- CERT / CSIRT
- A computer security incident response team that publishes warnings or coordinates incident response.
- PoC
- Proof of concept: public material that demonstrates or helps reproduce exploitation.
- CSAF
- Common Security Advisory Framework: a machine-readable format for security advisories.
- LoTL
- Living off the land: abuse of legitimate tools or system functions during an attack.