CVE-2016-7298

Microsoft Office 2007 SP3, Office 2010 SP2, Word Viewer, Office for Mac 2011, and Office 2016 for Mac allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (memory corruption) via a crafted document, aka "Microsoft Office Memory Corruption Vulnerability."

Published: 2016-12-20 Last update: 2026-05-06 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2016-7298 is rated High Risk (69/100): CVSS High severity, with high exploitation likelihood (EPSS 22.61%, 97th percentile). Core evidence: EPSS ranks this CVE among the most likely to be exploited in the near term. EPSS rose +3.71% over the last day, indicating growing attacker interest. Mandatory action: High exploitation likelihood—assess exposure and prioritize remediation.

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

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2016-7298

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 18.90% 22.61% +3.71%
2 2026-02-04 18.33% 18.90% +0.57%
3 2025-03-30 18.33%

Full EPSS history (10 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2016-7298

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.8 3.0 HIGH
CVSS:3.0/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]
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-2016-7298

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2016-7298

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
microsoft office 2007 cpe:2.3:a:microsoft:office:2007:sp3:*:*:*:*:*:*
microsoft office 2010 cpe:2.3:a:microsoft:office:2010:sp2:*:*:*:*:*:*
microsoft office 2011 cpe:2.3:a:microsoft:office:2011:*:mac:*:*:*:*:*
microsoft office 2016 cpe:2.3:a:microsoft:office:2016:*:mac:*:*:*:*:*
microsoft word_viewer cpe:2.3:a:microsoft:word_viewer:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2016-7298

cvelogic Threat Intelligence