What’s Vulnerable › Vulnerabilities

CVE-2020-1224: Microsoft Excel Information Disclosure Vulnerability

• Severity: medium (CVSS 4.3 v2.0)
• Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
• EPSS: 4.4% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
• Public exploit or detection template: none known
• Published: 2020-09-11 · updated 2026-06-17

Description

<p>An information disclosure vulnerability exists when Microsoft Excel improperly discloses the contents of its memory. An attacker who exploited the vulnerability could use the information to compromise the user’s computer or data.</p> <p>To exploit the vulnerability, an attacker could craft a special document file and then convince the user to open it. An attacker must know the memory address location where the object was created.</p> <p>The update addresses the vulnerability by changing the way certain Excel functions handle objects in memory.</p>

Affected products

• Microsoft 365 Apps: all versions
• Microsoft Excel 2013 Service Pack 1: 2010-sp2, 2013-sp1, 2016
• Microsoft Office: 2016, 2019
• Microsoft Office Online Server: all versions
• Microsoft Office Web Apps: 2013-sp1
• Microsoft SharePoint Server: 2013-sp1
• Microsoft 365 Apps: from 16.0.1 before https://aka.ms/OfficeSecurityReleases — fixed in https://aka.ms/OfficeSecurityReleases
• Microsoft Excel 2013 Service Pack 1: from 13.0.0.0 before publication — fixed in publication
• Microsoft Excel 2016: from 16.0.0.0 before publication — fixed in publication
• Microsoft Office 2016 for Mac: from 16.0.0 before publication — fixed in publication
• Microsoft Office 2019 for Mac: from 16.0.0 before publication — fixed in publication
• Microsoft Office Web Apps 2013 Service Pack 1: from 15.0.0.0 before publication — fixed in publication
• Microsoft SharePoint Enterprise Server 2013 Service Pack 1: from 15.0.0 before publication — fixed in publication
• Microsoft Office: from 19.0.0 before https://aka.ms/OfficeSecurityReleases — fixed in https://aka.ms/OfficeSecurityReleases
• Microsoft Office Online Server: from 16.0.1 before publication — fixed in publication

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Microsoft 365 Apps https://aka.ms/OfficeSecurityReleases; Microsoft Excel 2013 Service Pack 1 publication; Microsoft Excel 2016 publication; Microsoft Office 2016 for Mac publication; Microsoft Office 2019 for Mac publication; Microsoft Office Web Apps 2013 Service Pack 1 publication; Microsoft SharePoint Enterprise Server 2013 Service Pack 1 publication; Microsoft Office https://aka.ms/OfficeSecurityReleases; Microsoft Office Online Server publication. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

• https://portal.msrc.microsoft.com/en-US/security-guidance/advisory/CVE-2020-1224
• https://portal.msrc.microsoft.com/en-US/security-guidance/advisory/CVE-2020-1224

Get alerted when CVE-2020-1224 or the next vulnerability affects your stack