CVE-2019-0540

A security feature bypass vulnerability exists when Microsoft Office does not validate URLs.An attacker could send a victim a specially crafted file, which could trick the victim into entering credentials, aka 'Microsoft Office Security Feature Bypass Vulnerability'.

Published: 2019-03-05 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2019-0540 is rated Moderate Risk (60.3/100): CVSS Medium severity, with high exploitation likelihood (EPSS 22.18%, 96th percentile). EPSS ranks this CVE among the most likely to be exploited in the near term. EPSS rose +4.83% over the last day, indicating growing attacker interest. 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-2019-0540

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 2025-11-24 17.35% 22.18% +4.83%
2 2025-11-21 24.11% 17.35% -6.76%
3 2025-11-18 — 24.11% —

Full EPSS history (32 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2019-0540

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
5.5 3.0 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N 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:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 1.8 3.6 [email protected]
4.3 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:N 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:N)
No confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:P)
Partial integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:N)
No availability impact.
 8.6 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2019-0540

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2019-0540

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
microsoft excel_viewer — cpe:2.3:a:microsoft:excel_viewer:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
microsoft office 2010 cpe:2.3:a:microsoft:office:2010:sp2:*:*:*:*:*:*
microsoft office 2013 cpe:2.3:a:microsoft:office:2013:*:*:*:rt:*:*:*
microsoft office 2013 cpe:2.3:a:microsoft:office:2013:sp1:*:*:*:*:*:*
microsoft office 2016 cpe:2.3:a:microsoft:office:2016:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
microsoft office 2019 cpe:2.3:a:microsoft:office:2019:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
microsoft office_365_proplus — cpe:2.3:a:microsoft:office_365_proplus:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
microsoft powerpoint_viewer — cpe:2.3:a:microsoft:powerpoint_viewer:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
microsoft word_viewer — cpe:2.3:a:microsoft:word_viewer:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2019-0540

cvelogic Threat Intelligence