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Vulnerability record · CVE-2011-0979 · published 10 February 2011

CVE-2011-0979: Microsoft excel improper input validation vulnerability

Microsoft · Excel

Microsoft Excel 2002 SP3, 2003 SP3, 2007 SP2, and 2010; Office 2004, 2008, and 2011 for Mac; Open XML File Format Converter for Mac; and Excel Viewer SP2 do not properly handle errors during the parsing of Office Art records in Excel spreadsheets, which allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via a malformed object record, related to a "stray reference," aka "Excel Linked List Corruption Vulnerability."

9.3 CVSS 2.0 High EPSS 27% · top 2.1% CWE-20 · Improper input validation
9.3CVSS 2.0 base score
27%EPSS exploitation probability, 30 days
NoNot in CISA KEV
5Affected product versions listed by NVD
20References
16 Jun 2026Last modified by NVD

Description

Microsoft Excel 2002 SP3, 2003 SP3, 2007 SP2, and 2010; Office 2004, 2008, and 2011 for Mac; Open XML File Format Converter for Mac; and Excel Viewer SP2 do not properly handle errors during the parsing of Office Art records in Excel spreadsheets, which allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via a malformed object record, related to a "stray reference," aka "Excel Linked List Corruption Vulnerability."

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

Affected products

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

References

LinkTags
http://dvlabs.tippingpoint.com/blog/2011/02/07/zdi-disclosure-microsoft
http://osvdb.org/70904
http://secunia.com/advisories/39122 Vendor Advisory
http://secunia.com/advisories/43231 Vendor Advisory
http://www.securitytracker.com/id?1025337
http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/techalerts/TA11-102A.html US Government Resource
http://www.vupen.com/english/advisories/2011/0940 Vendor Advisory
http://zerodayinitiative.com/advisories/ZDI-11-041/
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/security-updates/securitybulletins/2011/ms11-021
https://oval.cisecurity.org/repository/search/definition/oval%3Aorg.mitre.oval%3Adef%3A12595
http://dvlabs.tippingpoint.com/blog/2011/02/07/zdi-disclosure-microsoft
http://osvdb.org/70904
http://secunia.com/advisories/39122 Vendor Advisory
http://secunia.com/advisories/43231 Vendor Advisory
http://www.securitytracker.com/id?1025337
http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/techalerts/TA11-102A.html US Government Resource
http://www.vupen.com/english/advisories/2011/0940 Vendor Advisory
http://zerodayinitiative.com/advisories/ZDI-11-041/
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/security-updates/securitybulletins/2011/ms11-021
https://oval.cisecurity.org/repository/search/definition/oval%3Aorg.mitre.oval%3Adef%3A12595

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Related vulnerabilities

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

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Source: NIST National Vulnerability Database (record CVE-2011-0979), CISA KEV, FIRST EPSS (scores of 2026-09-26). This page is refreshed as NVD updates the record.