# CVE-2012-5672: Denial of service in n/a

> Remote attackers can crash Microsoft Excel Viewer or Office 2007 by tricking users into opening a crafted spreadsheet file.

- **Severity:** Medium 4.3 (`AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** A user has to click or open something
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 25 Oct 2012
- **Updated:** 16 Sep 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-c7rj-fx5f-q8qw

## What is CVE-2012-5672?

CVE-2012-5672 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Microsoft Excel, published on 25 Oct 2012. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.

### Official description

Microsoft Excel Viewer (aka Xlview.exe) and Excel in Microsoft Office 2007 (aka Office 12) allow remote attackers to cause a denial of service (read access violation and application crash) via a crafted spreadsheet file, as demonstrated by a .xls file with battery voltage data.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2012-5672?

It affects 3 products.


Products: Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Excel Viewer, Microsoft Office.

## How do I fix CVE-2012-5672?

No fix has been published for CVE-2012-5672 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2012-5672 being exploited?

It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2012-5672 exists.

Public exploit code:

- Microsoft Excel - Denial of Service (exploitdb)

## Other vulnerabilities in Microsoft Excel

- [CVE-2019-1297](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-1297/): Microsoft Excel Remote Code Execution (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2009-0238](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2009-0238/): Microsoft Office Remote Code Execution (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2016-7262](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-7262/): Microsoft Office Security Feature Bypass (high 7.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2009-3129](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2009-3129/): Microsoft Excel Featheader Record Memory Corruption (high 7.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2008-0081](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2008-0081/): Code injection in n/a (critical 9.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2012-5672 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2012-5672 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Microsoft Excel, published on 25 Oct 2012. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Exploitation: It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2012-5672 exists.

Affected product: Microsoft Excel. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2012-5672/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2012-5672/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2012-5672
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2012-5672
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2012-5672

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2012-5672/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.