CVE-2017-11826

What is this vulnerability?

CVE-2017-11826 is categorized as a high Buffer Overflow flaw with a CVSS base score of 7.8. Based on our vulnerability intelligence, this issue occurs when the application fails to securely handle untrusted data boundaries.

Microsoft Office 2010, SharePoint Enterprise Server 2010, SharePoint Server 2010, Web Applications, Office Web Apps Server 2010 and 2013, Word Viewer, Word 2007, 2010, 2013 and 2016, Word Automation Services, and Office Online Server allow remote code execution when the software fails to properly handle objects in memory.

This architectural defect enables adversaries to bypass intended security controls, directly manipulating the application's execution state or data layer. Immediate strategic intervention is required.

Risk Assessment

Impact on Systems

✅ Remote Code Execution: Attackers can overwrite the instruction pointer to redirect execution to malicious shellcode.

✅ Memory Corruption: Overwriting adjacent memory regions can corrupt critical application state, leading to privilege escalation.

✅ Denial of Service: Triggering segmentation faults results in immediate disruption of critical systems.

How to Fix and Mitigate CVE-2017-11826

1. Apply Vendor Patches Immediately: This vulnerability is listed in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. Apply updates per vendor instructions.
2. Verify Patch Deployment: Confirm all instances are updated using Precogs continuous monitoring.
3. Review Audit Logs: Investigate historical access logs for indicators of compromise related to this attack surface.
4. Implement Defense-in-Depth: Deploy WAF rules, network segmentation, and endpoint detection to limit blast radius.

Defending with Precogs AI

Microsoft Office improperly handles objects in memory when parsing malformed Office files. Attackers trick victims into opening crafted documents, triggering memory corruption and arbitrary code execution. Precogs Binary SAST engine uncovers unsafe memory operations within complex file parsers.

Use Precogs to continuously scan your codebase, binaries, APIs, and infrastructure for this vulnerability class and related attack patterns. Our AI-powered detection engine combines static analysis with threat intelligence to identify exploitable weaknesses before attackers do.

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Vulnerability Code Signature

Attack Data Flow

Vulnerable Code Pattern

// ❌ VULNERABLE: Memory Buffer Overflow
void process_data(char *input) {
    char buffer[64];
    // Taint sink: copies without bounds checking
    strcpy(buffer, input);
}

Secure Code Pattern

// ✅ SECURE: Bounded copy
void process_data(char *input) {
    char buffer[64];
    // Sanitized boundary check
    strncpy(buffer, input, sizeof(buffer) - 1);
    buffer[sizeof(buffer) - 1] = '\0';
}

How Precogs Detects This

Precogs Binary SAST engine explicitly uncovers memory boundary violations and unsafe memory management functions in compiled binaries.\n