CVE-2009-3129

Exp

Microsoft Office Excel 2002 SP3, 2003 SP3, and 2007 SP1 and SP2; Office 2004 and 2008 for Mac; Open XML File Format Converter for Mac; Office Excel Viewer 2003 SP3; Office Excel Viewer SP1 and SP2; and Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats SP1 and SP2 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via a spreadsheet with a FEATHEADER record containing an invalid cbHdrData size element that affects a pointer offset, aka "Excel Featheader Record Memory Corruption Vulnerability."

Published: 2009-11-11 Last update: 2026-04-22 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Analyzed，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2009-3129 is rated Critical Active Threat (91/100): CVSS High severity, with high exploitation likelihood (EPSS 91.24%, 100th percentile). CISA KEV confirms active exploitation (added 2022-03-03) affecting Microsoft / Excel. a weakness (CWE-787) Unauthenticated remote administrative access may be possible. 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-2009-3129

Name: Microsoft Excel Featheader Record Memory Corruption Vulnerability · CISA KEV detail

Exploit added: 2022-03-03

Action due: 2022-03-24

Required action: Apply updates per vendor instructions.

Public exploit references (Exploit-DB) for CVE-2009-3129

EDB-ID Source Kind Published Link
16625 exploit_db edb 2010-09-25 Exploit-DB ↗
14706 exploit_db edb 2010-08-21 Exploit-DB ↗
— nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2009-3129

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 2026-05-08 91.30% 91.24% -0.06%
2 2026-04-25 91.24% 91.30% +0.06%
3 2026-04-12 — 91.24% —

Full EPSS history (28 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2009-3129

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.8 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
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.
 1.8 5.9 [email protected]
7.8 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
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.
 1.8 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-2009-3129

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2009-3129

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
microsoft excel 2002 cpe:2.3:a:microsoft:excel:2002:sp3:*:*:*:*:*:*
microsoft excel 2003 cpe:2.3:a:microsoft:excel:2003:sp3:*:*:*:*:*:*
microsoft excel 2007 cpe:2.3:a:microsoft:excel:2007:sp1:*:*:*:*:*:*
microsoft excel 2007 cpe:2.3:a:microsoft:excel:2007:sp2:*:*:*:*:*:*
microsoft excel_viewer — cpe:2.3:a:microsoft:excel_viewer:-:sp1:*:*:*:*:*:*
microsoft excel_viewer — cpe:2.3:a:microsoft:excel_viewer:-:sp2:*:*:*:*:*:*
microsoft excel_viewer 2003 cpe:2.3:a:microsoft:excel_viewer:2003:sp3:*:*:*:*:*:*
microsoft office 2004 cpe:2.3:a:microsoft:office:2004:*:*:*:*:macos:*:*
microsoft office 2008 cpe:2.3:a:microsoft:office:2008:*:*:*:*:macos:*:*
microsoft open_xml_file_format_converter — cpe:2.3:a:microsoft:open_xml_file_format_converter:*:*:*:*:*:macos:*:*

References for CVE-2009-3129

URL Tags
http://archives.neohapsis.com/archives/bugtraq/2009-11/0080.html Broken Link
http://labs.idefense.com/intelligence/vulnerabilities/display.php?id=832 Broken Link
http://osvdb.org/59860 Broken Link
http://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/14706 Exploit Third Party Advisory VDB Entry
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/36945 Broken Link Third Party Advisory VDB Entry
http://www.securitytracker.com/id?1023157 Broken Link Third Party Advisory VDB Entry
http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/techalerts/TA09-314A.html Third Party Advisory US Government Resource
http://www.zerodayinitiative.com/advisories/ZDI-09-083 Third Party Advisory VDB Entry
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/security-updates/securitybulletins/2009/ms09-067 Patch Vendor Advisory
https://oval.cisecurity.org/repository/search/definition/oval%3Aorg.mitre.oval%3Adef%3A6521 Broken Link
https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2009-3129 US Government Resource
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