CVE-2009-0556

Exp

Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2000 SP3, 2002 SP3, and 2003 SP3, and PowerPoint in Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac, allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via a PowerPoint file with an OutlineTextRefAtom containing an an invalid index value that triggers memory corruption, as exploited in the wild in April 2009 by Exploit:Win32/Apptom.gen, aka "Memory Corruption Vulnerability."

Published: 2009-04-03 Last update: 2026-06-16 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Analyzed，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2009-0556 is rated Critical Active Threat (99.9/100): CVSS High severity, with high exploitation likelihood (EPSS 67.54%, 99th percentile). CISA KEV confirms active exploitation (added 2026-01-07) affecting Microsoft / Office. a weakness (CWE-94) Unauthenticated remote administrative access may be possible. EPSS rose +8.49% over the last day, indicating growing attacker interest. The CISA remediation deadline has passed—treat as an emergency patch priority.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

CISA KEV Record for CVE-2009-0556

Name: Microsoft Office PowerPoint Code Injection Vulnerability · CISA KEV detail

Exploit added: 2026-01-07

Action due: 2026-01-28

Required action: Apply mitigations per vendor instructions, follow applicable BOD 22-01 guidance for cloud services, or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2009-0556

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-06-15 59.05% 67.54% +8.49%
2 2026-06-08 57.40% 59.05% +1.65%
3 2026-06-06 — 57.40% —

Full EPSS history (40 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2009-0556

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
8.8 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:R)
A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 2.8 5.9 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0
9.3 2.0 HIGH
AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C Click to expand
Access vector (AV:N)
Can be exploited remotely over network reachability.
Access complexity (AC:M)
Exploitation needs some favorable conditions, but not exceptional ones.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:C)
Complete confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:C)
Complete integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:C)
Complete availability impact.
 8.6 10.0 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2009-0556

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2009-0556

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
microsoft office_powerpoint 2004 cpe:2.3:a:microsoft:office_powerpoint:2004:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
microsoft powerpoint 2000 cpe:2.3:a:microsoft:powerpoint:2000:sp3:*:*:*:*:*:*
microsoft powerpoint 2002 cpe:2.3:a:microsoft:powerpoint:2002:sp3:*:*:*:*:*:*
microsoft powerpoint 2003 cpe:2.3:a:microsoft:powerpoint:2003:sp3:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2009-0556

URL Tags
http://blogs.technet.com/mmpc/archive/2009/04/02/new-0-day-exploits-using-powerpoint-files.aspx Vendor Advisory
http://blogs.technet.com/msrc/archive/2009/04/02/microsoft-security-advisory-969136.aspx Vendor Advisory
http://blogs.technet.com/srd/archive/2009/04/02/investigating-the-new-powerpoint-issue.aspx Vendor Advisory
http://osvdb.org/53182 Broken Link
http://secunia.com/advisories/34572 Vendor Advisory
http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/627331 US Government Resource
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/advisory/969136.mspx Patch Vendor Advisory
http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/1/503453/100/0/threaded Broken Link
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/34351 Broken Link
http://www.securitytracker.com/id?1021967 Broken Link
http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/techalerts/TA09-132A.html US Government Resource
http://www.vupen.com/english/advisories/2009/0915 Vendor Advisory
http://www.vupen.com/english/advisories/2009/1290 Broken Link
http://www.zerodayinitiative.com/advisories/ZDI-09-019 Third Party Advisory
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/security-updates/securitybulletins/2009/ms09-017 Vendor Advisory
https://exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com/vulnerabilities/49632 Third Party Advisory
https://oval.cisecurity.org/repository/search/definition/oval%3Aorg.mitre.oval%3Adef%3A6204 Broken Link
https://oval.cisecurity.org/repository/search/definition/oval%3Aorg.mitre.oval%3Adef%3A6279 Broken Link
https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2009-0556 US Government Resource
cvelogic Threat Intelligence