Known Exploited Vulnerability
9.3
HIGH CVSS 2.0
CVE-2016-3235
Microsoft Office OLE DLL Side Loading Vulnerability - [Actively Exploited]
Description

Microsoft Visio 2007 SP3, Visio 2010 SP2, Visio 2013 SP1, Visio 2016, Visio Viewer 2007 SP3, and Visio Viewer 2010 mishandle library loading, which allows local users to gain privileges via a crafted application, aka "Microsoft Office OLE DLL Side Loading Vulnerability."

INFO

Published Date :

June 16, 2016, 1:59 a.m.

Last Modified :

April 12, 2025, 10:46 a.m.

Remotely Exploit :

Yes !
CISA Notification
CISA KEV (Known Exploited Vulnerabilities)

For the benefit of the cybersecurity community and network defenders—and to help every organization better manage vulnerabilities and keep pace with threat activity—CISA maintains the authoritative source of vulnerabilities that have been exploited in the wild.

Description :

Microsoft Office Object Linking & Embedding (OLE) dynamic link library (DLL) contains a side loading vulnerability due to it improperly validating input before loading libraries. Successful exploitation allows for remote code execution.

Required Action :

Apply updates per vendor instructions.

Notes :

https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2016-3235

Affected Products

The following products are affected by CVE-2016-3235 vulnerability. Even if cvefeed.io is aware of the exact versions of the products that are affected, the information is not represented in the table below.

ID Vendor Product Action
1 Microsoft visio
2 Microsoft visio_viewer
CVSS Scores
The Common Vulnerability Scoring System is a standardized framework for assessing the severity of vulnerabilities in software and systems. We collect and displays CVSS scores from various sources for each CVE.
Score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Score Impact Score Source
CVSS 2.0 HIGH [email protected]
CVSS 3.1 HIGH [email protected]
CVSS 3.1 HIGH 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0
Solution
This information is provided by the 3rd party feeds.
  • Microsoft has released a set of patches for Microsoft Office 2007, 2010, 2013, 2013 RT, and 2016; Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2013 RT, and 2016; Microsoft Excel 2007 and 2010; Microsoft Visio 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016; Visio Viewer 2007 and 2010; Word Viewer; Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack; Office Web Apps 2010 and 2013; Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 and 2013; and Office Online Server.
Public PoC/Exploit Available at Github

CVE-2016-3235 has a 1 public PoC/Exploit available at Github. Go to the Public Exploits tab to see the list.

References to Advisories, Solutions, and Tools
CWE - Common Weakness Enumeration

While CVE identifies specific instances of vulnerabilities, CWE categorizes the common flaws or weaknesses that can lead to vulnerabilities. CVE-2016-3235 is associated with the following CWEs:

Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC)

Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC) stores attack patterns, which are descriptions of the common attributes and approaches employed by adversaries to exploit the CVE-2016-3235 weaknesses.

We scan GitHub repositories to detect new proof-of-concept exploits. Following list is a collection of public exploits and proof-of-concepts, which have been published on GitHub (sorted by the most recently updated).

Ostorlab KEV: One-command to detect most remotely known exploitable vulnerabilities. Sourced from CISA KEV, Google's Tsunami, Ostorlab's Asteroid and Bug Bounty programs.

cisa-kev vulnerability 0day cisa exploits

Updated: 1 month, 1 week ago
581 stars 42 fork 42 watcher
Born at : April 19, 2022, 8:58 a.m. This repo has been linked 1287 different CVEs too.

Results are limited to the first 15 repositories due to potential performance issues.

The following list is the news that have been mention CVE-2016-3235 vulnerability anywhere in the article.

The following table lists the changes that have been made to the CVE-2016-3235 vulnerability over time.

Vulnerability history details can be useful for understanding the evolution of a vulnerability, and for identifying the most recent changes that may impact the vulnerability's severity, exploitability, or other characteristics.

  • Modified Analysis by [email protected]

    Apr. 07, 2025

    Action Type Old Value New Value
  • CVE Modified by 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0

    Feb. 10, 2025

    Action Type Old Value New Value
    Added CVSS V3.1 AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
  • Modified Analysis by [email protected]

    Jan. 28, 2025

    Action Type Old Value New Value
  • CVE Modified by af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108

    Nov. 21, 2024

    Action Type Old Value New Value
    Added Reference http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/137490/Microsoft-Visio-DLL-Hijacking.html
    Added Reference http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2016/Jun/32
    Added Reference http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/1/538685/100/0/threaded
    Added Reference http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1036093
    Added Reference https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/security-updates/securitybulletins/2016/ms16-070
    Added Reference https://www.securify.nl/advisory/SFY20150804/microsoft_visio_multiple_dll_side_loading_vulnerabilities.html
  • Modified Analysis by [email protected]

    Jul. 24, 2024

    Action Type Old Value New Value
    Removed CVSS V3 NIST AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
    Added CVSS V3.1 NIST AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
    Changed Reference Type http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/137490/Microsoft-Visio-DLL-Hijacking.html No Types Assigned http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/137490/Microsoft-Visio-DLL-Hijacking.html Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry
    Changed Reference Type http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2016/Jun/32 No Types Assigned http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2016/Jun/32 Mailing List, Third Party Advisory
    Changed Reference Type http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/1/538685/100/0/threaded No Types Assigned http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/1/538685/100/0/threaded Broken Link, Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry
    Changed Reference Type http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1036093 No Types Assigned http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1036093 Broken Link, Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry
    Changed Reference Type https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/security-updates/securitybulletins/2016/ms16-070 No Types Assigned https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/security-updates/securitybulletins/2016/ms16-070 Patch, Vendor Advisory
    Changed Reference Type https://www.securify.nl/advisory/SFY20150804/microsoft_visio_multiple_dll_side_loading_vulnerabilities.html No Types Assigned https://www.securify.nl/advisory/SFY20150804/microsoft_visio_multiple_dll_side_loading_vulnerabilities.html Exploit, Third Party Advisory
    Removed CWE NIST CWE-264
    Added CWE NIST NVD-CWE-noinfo
  • CVE Modified by [email protected]

    May. 14, 2024

    Action Type Old Value New Value
  • CVE Modified by [email protected]

    Oct. 12, 2018

    Action Type Old Value New Value
    Removed Reference http://technet.microsoft.com/security/bulletin/MS16-070 [Patch, Vendor Advisory]
    Added Reference https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/security-updates/securitybulletins/2016/ms16-070 [No Types Assigned]
  • CVE Modified by [email protected]

    Oct. 09, 2018

    Action Type Old Value New Value
    Removed Reference http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/1/archive/1/538685/100/0/threaded [No Types Assigned]
    Added Reference http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/1/538685/100/0/threaded [No Types Assigned]
  • CVE Modified by [email protected]

    Nov. 30, 2016

    Action Type Old Value New Value
    Added Reference http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/1/archive/1/538685/100/0/threaded [No Types Assigned]
    Added Reference http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2016/Jun/32 [No Types Assigned]
    Added Reference http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1036093 [No Types Assigned]
    Added Reference http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/137490/Microsoft-Visio-DLL-Hijacking.html [No Types Assigned]
    Added Reference https://www.securify.nl/advisory/SFY20150804/microsoft_visio_multiple_dll_side_loading_vulnerabilities.html [No Types Assigned]
  • Modified Analysis by [email protected]

    Jun. 16, 2016

    Action Type Old Value New Value
    Added CPE Configuration Configuration 1 OR *cpe:2.3:a:microsoft:visio_viewer:2010:*:*:*:*:*:*:* *cpe:2.3:a:microsoft:visio_viewer:2007:sp3:*:*:*:*:*:* *cpe:2.3:a:microsoft:visio:2016:*:*:*:*:*:*:* *cpe:2.3:a:microsoft:visio:2013:sp1:*:*:*:*:*:* *cpe:2.3:a:microsoft:visio:2010:sp2:*:*:*:*:*:* *cpe:2.3:a:microsoft:visio:2007:sp3:*:*:*:*:*:*
    Added CVSS V2 (AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C)
    Added CVSS V3 AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
    Changed Reference Type http://technet.microsoft.com/security/bulletin/MS16-070 No Types Assigned http://technet.microsoft.com/security/bulletin/MS16-070 Advisory, Patch
    Added CWE CWE-264
  • Initial Analysis by [email protected]

    Jun. 16, 2016

    Action Type Old Value New Value
EPSS is a daily estimate of the probability of exploitation activity being observed over the next 30 days. Following chart shows the EPSS score history of the vulnerability.
Vulnerability Scoring Details
Base CVSS Score: 7.8
Attack Vector
Attack Complexity
Privileges Required
User Interaction
Scope
Confidentiality Impact
Integrity Impact
Availability Impact
Base CVSS Score: 9.3
Access Vector
Access Complexity
Authentication
Confidentiality Impact
Integrity Impact
Availability Impact
Exploit Prediction

EPSS is a daily estimate of the probability of exploitation activity being observed over the next 30 days.

82.10 }} -3.71%

score

0.99180

percentile