Microsoft Office MSCOMCTL.OCX Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

CheckOps priority index

8.1/10 Patch within 24 h

Severity8.8

Probability7.2

Exploitation4/5

Severity = CVSS. Probability = EPSS (FIRST). Exploitation = public signals: KEV, EUVD, ransomware, EPSS above 10 %, no account required.

EPSS · today 72.0% higher than 99.4% of CVEs

CVSS 3.1 8.8 AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:

Exploited for 1,706 days 03 Mar 2022

CISA due date 24 Mar 2022 for US federal agencies

Exploitation probability EPSS · FIRST

EPSS probability (%)Percentile among all CVEs

Exploitation signals 4 / 5

KEV catalog (CISA)03 Mar 2022
Exploited in EUVD (ENISA)03 Mar 2022
Used by ransomwareno
EPSS above 10 %72.0%
No account, over the networkyes

What to do

Fix

Apply the vendor’s fix as soon as it is available.

CISA guidance: Apply updates per vendor instructions.

Meanwhile

Take the service off the internet or restrict access to it, watch the logs and look for signs of compromise.

Manufacturers (CRA)

Exploited vulnerability in your product: early warning to ENISA within 24 h, then notification within 72 h (Article 14 of the Cyber Resilience Act). The CRA explained

Description ENISA EUVD

The TabStrip ActiveX control in the Common Controls in MSCOMCTL.OCX in Microsoft Office 2003 SP3, Office 2003 Web Components SP3, Office 2007 SP2 and SP3, Office 2010 SP1, SQL Server 2000 SP4, SQL Server 2005 SP4, SQL Server 2008 SP2, SP3, R2, R2 SP1, and R2 SP2, Commerce Server 2002 SP4, Commerce Server 2007 SP2, Commerce Server 2009 Gold and R2, Host Integration Server 2004 SP1, Visual FoxPro 8.0 SP1, Visual FoxPro 9.0 SP2, and Visual Basic 6.0 Runtime allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via a crafted (1) document or (2) web page that triggers system-state corruption, aka "MSCOMCTL.OCX RCE Vulnerability."

Affected products

Office

Weaknesses (CWE)

CWE-94

Open source packages OSV

Affected libraries according to OSV, with fixed versions.

Timeline

15 Aug 2012
Published
03 Mar 2022
Exploitation reported (ENISA)
03 Mar 2022
Added to the KEV catalog
24 Mar 2022
CISA remediation due date
26 Sept 2026
EPSS peak: 72.0%

References

Other exploited vulnerabilities from the same vendor

CVE-2026-96951Microsoft Windows Command Injection Vulnerability
5.6 · Actively exploited
CVE-2026-65660Microsoft SharePoint Code Injection Vulnerability
5.0 · Actively exploited
CVE-2026-85880Microsoft Windows Heap-Based Buffer Overflow Vulnerability
4.3 · Actively exploited
CVE-2026-81963Microsoft Windows Link Following Vulnerability
4.3 · Actively exploited
CVE-2019-1068Microsoft SQL Server Remote Code Execution Vulnerability
7.0 · Actively exploited
CVE-2026-69836Microsoft Entra
5.3 · Actively exploited