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Vulnerability record · CVE-2006-1540 · published 30 March 2006

CVE-2006-1540: Microsoft office code injection vulnerability

Microsoft · Office

MSO.DLL in Microsoft Office 2000, Office XP (2002), and Office 2003 allows user-assisted attackers to cause a denial of service and execute arbitrary code via multiple attack vectors, as originally demonstrated using a crafted document record with a malformed string, as demonstrated by replacing a certain "01 00 00 00" byte sequence with an "FF FF FF FF" byte sequence, possibly causing an invalid array index, in (1) an Excel .xls document, which triggers an access violation in ole32.dll; (2) an Excel .xlw document, which triggers an access violation in excel.exe; (3) a Word document, which triggers an access violation in mso.dll in winword.exe; and (4) a PowerPoint document, which triggers an access violation in powerpnt.txt. NOTE: after the initial disclosure, this issue was demonstrated by triggering an integer overflow using an inconsistent size for a Unicode "Sheet Name" string.

9.3 CVSS 2.0 High EPSS 29% · top 1.9% CWE-94 · Code injection
9.3CVSS 2.0 base score
29%EPSS exploitation probability, 30 days
NoNot in CISA KEV
1Affected product versions listed by NVD
28References, 4 tagged exploit
16 Jun 2026Last modified by NVD

Description

MSO.DLL in Microsoft Office 2000, Office XP (2002), and Office 2003 allows user-assisted attackers to cause a denial of service and execute arbitrary code via multiple attack vectors, as originally demonstrated using a crafted document record with a malformed string, as demonstrated by replacing a certain "01 00 00 00" byte sequence with an "FF FF FF FF" byte sequence, possibly causing an invalid array index, in (1) an Excel .xls document, which triggers an access violation in ole32.dll; (2) an Excel .xlw document, which triggers an access violation in excel.exe; (3) a Word document, which triggers an access violation in mso.dll in winword.exe; and (4) a PowerPoint document, which triggers an access violation in powerpnt.txt. NOTE: after the initial disclosure, this issue was demonstrated by triggering an integer overflow using an inconsistent size for a Unicode "Sheet Name" string.

AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

Affected products

1 vulnerable configurations from NVD's CPE data, grouped by vendor and product.

References

LinkTags
http://secunia.com/advisories/21012 Third Party Advisory
http://securitytracker.com/id?1015855 ExploitThird Party AdvisoryVDB Entry
http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/609868 Third Party AdvisoryUS Government Resource
http://www.osvdb.org/27150 Broken Link
http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/1/439697/100/0/threaded
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/17252 ExploitThird Party AdvisoryVDB Entry
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/18889 Third Party AdvisoryVDB Entry
http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/techalerts/TA06-192A.html Third Party AdvisoryUS Government Resource
http://www.vupen.com/english/advisories/2006/2756 Vendor Advisory
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/security-updates/securitybulletins/2006/ms06-038
https://exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com/vulnerabilities/27607 Third Party AdvisoryVDB Entry
https://exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com/vulnerabilities/27609 Third Party AdvisoryVDB Entry
https://oval.cisecurity.org/repository/search/definition/oval%3Aorg.mitre.oval%3Adef%3A639 Third Party Advisory
https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/1615 Third Party AdvisoryVDB Entry
http://secunia.com/advisories/21012 Third Party Advisory
http://securitytracker.com/id?1015855 ExploitThird Party AdvisoryVDB Entry
http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/609868 Third Party AdvisoryUS Government Resource
http://www.osvdb.org/27150 Broken Link
http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/1/439697/100/0/threaded
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/17252 ExploitThird Party AdvisoryVDB Entry
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/18889 Third Party AdvisoryVDB Entry
http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/techalerts/TA06-192A.html Third Party AdvisoryUS Government Resource
http://www.vupen.com/english/advisories/2006/2756 Vendor Advisory
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/security-updates/securitybulletins/2006/ms06-038
https://exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com/vulnerabilities/27607 Third Party AdvisoryVDB Entry
https://exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com/vulnerabilities/27609 Third Party AdvisoryVDB Entry
https://oval.cisecurity.org/repository/search/definition/oval%3Aorg.mitre.oval%3Adef%3A639 Third Party Advisory
https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/1615 Third Party AdvisoryVDB Entry

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Same products first, then exploited flaws of the same weakness class.

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Source: NIST National Vulnerability Database (record CVE-2006-1540), CISA KEV, FIRST EPSS (scores of 2026-09-27). This page is refreshed as NVD updates the record.