# CVE-2018-8244: Privilege escalation in Microsoft Office

> Attackers can elevate privileges by exploiting improper validation of attachment headers in Microsoft Outlook.

- **Severity:** Medium 6.5 (`CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N`)
- **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:** 14 Jun 2018
- **Updated:** 5 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-hw92-6x7q-xg4p

## What is CVE-2018-8244?

CVE-2018-8244 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Microsoft Office, published on 14 Jun 2018. 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

An elevation of privilege vulnerability exists when Microsoft Outlook does not validate attachment headers properly, aka "Microsoft Outlook Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability." This affects Microsoft Office, Microsoft Outlook.

Weakness: CWE-20 (Improper Input Validation)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2018-8244?

It affects 3 products.


Products: Microsoft Office, Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Outlook Rt.

## How do I fix CVE-2018-8244?

No fix has been published for CVE-2018-8244 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2018-8244 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2018-8244 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office

- [CVE-2018-0798](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-0798/): Microsoft Office Memory Corruption (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2015-1770](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-1770/): Microsoft Office Uninitialized Memory Use (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2006-2492](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2006-2492/): Microsoft Word Malformed Object Pointer (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2018-0802](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-0802/): Microsoft Office Memory Corruption (high 7.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2017-11882](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-11882/): Microsoft Office Memory Corruption (high 7.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2018-8244 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2018-8244 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Microsoft Office, published on 14 Jun 2018. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2018-8244 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Microsoft Office. 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-2018-8244/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-8244/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2018-8244
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2018-8244
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2018-8244

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-8244/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.