# CVE-2018-8579: Information disclosure in Microsoft Office

> An attacker can disclose sensitive information when users attach files to Outlook messages, affecting Microsoft Office users.

- **Severity:** Medium 6.5 (`CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 14 Nov 2018
- **Updated:** 5 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-qmwc-jg89-8mqr

## What is CVE-2018-8579?

CVE-2018-8579 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Microsoft Office, published on 14 Nov 2018. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

An information disclosure vulnerability exists when attaching files to Outlook messages, aka "Microsoft Outlook Information Disclosure Vulnerability." This affects Office 365 ProPlus, Microsoft Office. This CVE ID is unique from CVE-2018-8558.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2018-8579?

It affects 2 products.


Products: Microsoft Office, Microsoft Office 365 Proplus.

## How do I fix CVE-2018-8579?

No fix has been published for CVE-2018-8579 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2018-8579 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2018-8579 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-2018-8579 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2018-8579 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Microsoft Office, published on 14 Nov 2018. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2018-8579 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-2018-8579/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-8579/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2018-8579
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2018-8579
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2018-8579

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-8579/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.