Untrusted Pointer Dereference in Excel Enables Local Code Execution

Publication date: 2026-01-13

Last updated on: 2026-01-13

Assigner: Microsoft Corporation

Description

Untrusted pointer dereference in Microsoft Office Excel allows an unauthorized attacker to execute code locally.

CVSS Scores

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Meta Information

Published

2026-01-13

Last Modified

2026-01-13

Generated

2026-07-06

AI Q&A

2026-01-14

EPSS Evaluated

2026-07-05

NVD

CVE-2026-20956

Affected Vendors & Products

Vendor	Product	Version / Range
microsoft	office_excel	*

Helpful Resources

Exploitability

CWE

KEV

CWE ID	Description
CWE-822	The product obtains a value from an untrusted source, converts this value to a pointer, and dereferences the resulting pointer.

Attack-Flow Graph

Executive Summary

This vulnerability is an untrusted pointer dereference in Microsoft Office Excel that allows an unauthorized attacker to execute code locally on the affected system. [1]

Impact Analysis

An attacker exploiting this vulnerability can execute code locally on your system without authorization, potentially leading to full compromise of confidentiality, integrity, and availability of your data and system. [1]

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