{"id":80938,"date":"2025-10-03T01:42:27","date_gmt":"2025-10-03T01:42:27","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2025-10-29T17:39:05","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T23:39:05","slug":"cve-2025-53735-a-critical-use-after-free-vulnerability-in-microsoft-office-excel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-53735-a-critical-use-after-free-vulnerability-in-microsoft-office-excel\/","title":{"rendered":"<strong>CVE-2025-53735: A Critical Use-After-Free Vulnerability in Microsoft Office Excel<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Overview<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;re taking a deep dive into CVE-2025-53735, a significant vulnerability that poses a real threat to users of Microsoft Office Excel. This vulnerability is particularly concerning due to its potential to allow an unauthorized attacker to execute code locally on the affected system. Because Excel is widely used in organizations and individual systems across the world, the reach of this <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-55422-high-severity-reflected-xss-vulnerability-in-foxcms-1-2-6\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"88638\">vulnerability is extensive and its impacts severe<\/a>.<br \/>\nThis vulnerability has been classified as &#8216;Use After Free,&#8217; which is a type of issue where a program continues to use memory after it has been freed or de-allocated. Largely, this can lead to unpredictable behavior, including program crashes, incorrect outputs, and in severe cases &#8211; like this <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-9566-podman-vulnerability-allows-unauthorized-file-overwriting\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"88135\">vulnerability &#8211; it can allow<\/a> an attacker to execute arbitrary code.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Vulnerability Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>CVE ID: CVE-2025-53735<br \/>\nSeverity: High (7.8 CVSS Score)<br \/>\nAttack Vector: Local<br \/>\nPrivileges Required: None<br \/>\nUser Interaction: Required<br \/>\nImpact: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-9443-buffer-overflow-vulnerability-in-tenda-ch22-1-0-0-1-potentially-leads-to-system-compromise\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"89032\">Potential system<\/a> compromise or data leakage<\/p>\n<p><strong>Affected Products<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"ameeb-3878309200\" class=\"ameeb-content-2 ameeb-entity-placement\"><div style=\"border-left: 4px solid #555; padding-left: 20px; margin: 48px 0; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; color: #ffffff; line-height: 1.6; max-width: 720px;\">\r\n  <h2 style=\"margin-top: 0; font-size: 22px; font-weight: 600; display: flex; align-items: center; letter-spacing: -0.02em;\">\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/chat\" style=\"display: inline-flex; align-items: center; margin-right: 10px;\">\r\n      <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Best-App-icon-Ameeba.png\" alt=\"Ameeba Chat Icon\" style=\"width: 42px; height: 42px;\" \/>\r\n    <\/a>\r\n    Share secrets securely\r\n  <\/h2>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"margin-bottom: 14px; color: #d1d5db;\">\r\n    Ameeba is private infrastructure for communication and sensitive work built on encrypted identity instead of exposed corporate identity systems.\r\n  <\/p>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"margin-bottom: 18px; color: #a1a1aa;\">\r\n    Passwords, credentials, confidential files, screenshots, internal discussions, sensitive AI context, and private coordination should not become exposed across ordinary communication platforms.\r\n  <\/p>\r\n\r\n  <ul style=\"list-style: none; padding-left: 0; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #e4e4e7;\">\r\n    <li style=\"margin-bottom: 8px;\">\u2022 Encrypted identity<\/li>\r\n    <li style=\"margin-bottom: 8px;\">\u2022 Private Spaces for organizations and teams<\/li>\r\n    <li style=\"margin-bottom: 8px;\">\u2022 End-to-end encrypted chat, calls, files, and notes<\/li>\r\n    <li style=\"margin-bottom: 8px;\">\u2022 Sensitive AI work and protected collaboration<\/li>\r\n    <li>\u2022 Built for information that cannot leak<\/li>\r\n  <\/ul>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"font-style: italic; font-weight: 600; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #ffffff;\">\r\n    Our mission is to secure human work alongside AI.\r\n  <\/p>\r\n\r\n  <div style=\"display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap; gap: 12px;\">\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/chat\/download\" style=\"background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; padding: 10px 20px; text-decoration: none; border-radius: 8px; font-weight: 500;\">\r\n      Download Ameeba\r\n    <\/a>\r\n\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/chat\" style=\"border: 1px solid #ffffff; color: #ffffff; padding: 10px 20px; text-decoration: none; border-radius: 8px; font-weight: 500;\">\r\n      Learn More\r\n    <\/a>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>Product | Affected Versions<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-54897-deserialization-vulnerability-in-microsoft-office-sharepoint\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"89210\">Microsoft Office<\/a> Excel | All versions prior to latest patch<\/p>\n<p><strong>How the Exploit Works<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-7424-critical-memory-corruption-vulnerability-in-libxslt-library\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"88318\">vulnerability is a result of improper memory<\/a> management in Microsoft Office Excel. When an Excel document is closed, some objects associated with the document are not properly de-allocated. If an attacker can trick a user into opening a specifically crafted Excel document, they can leverage this <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-52389-insecure-direct-object-reference-vulnerability-in-envasadora-h2o-eireli-soda-cristal\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"88136\">vulnerability to use these &#8216;freed&#8217; objects<\/a> to execute arbitrary code.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Conceptual Example Code<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"ameeb-1258848022\" class=\"ameeb-content ameeb-entity-placement\"><div class=\"poptin-embedded\" data-id=\"f6b387694f681\"><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\n<p>The following is a conceptual example of how an attacker might exploit this <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-30383-type-confusion-vulnerability-in-microsoft-office-excel-leading-to-unauthorized-code-execution\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"91854\">vulnerability using a malicious Excel<\/a> document:<\/p>\n<pre><code class=\"\" data-line=\"\"># Create an Excel document\ndoc = create_excel_document()\n# Add malicious payload that uses the &#039;use after free&#039; vulnerability\npayload = craft_payload(&#039;use after free&#039;, &#039;arbitrary code&#039;)\ndoc.add_payload(payload)\n# Save the document\ndoc.save(&#039;malicious_document.xlsx&#039;)<\/code><\/pre>\n<p>Please note that this is a simplified example of how the vulnerability might be exploited. Actual exploitation would involve complex <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-25180-underprivileged-software-manipulates-gpu-system-calls-for-unauthorized-access\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"88739\">manipulation of the Excel document&#8217;s internals and the system&#8217;s<\/a> memory.<br \/>\nIn conclusion, this <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-53510-critical-memory-corruption-vulnerability-in-sail-image-decoding-library\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"89136\">vulnerability highlights the importance of proper memory<\/a> management in software development. Users are advised to update their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-32705-out-of-bounds-read-vulnerability-in-microsoft-office-outlook\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"91767\">Microsoft Office<\/a> Excel as soon as patches become available. In the meantime, implementing a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or an Intrusion Detection System (IDS) can provide temporary mitigation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Overview We&#8217;re taking a deep dive into CVE-2025-53735, a significant vulnerability that poses a real threat to users of Microsoft Office Excel. This vulnerability is particularly concerning due to its potential to allow an unauthorized attacker to execute code locally on the affected system. Because Excel is widely used in organizations and individual systems across [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"vendor":[82],"product":[],"attack_vector":[],"asset_type":[],"severity":[],"exploit_status":[],"class_list":["post-80938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","vendor-microsoft"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80938"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80938\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85032,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80938\/revisions\/85032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80938"},{"taxonomy":"vendor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vendor?post=80938"},{"taxonomy":"product","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product?post=80938"},{"taxonomy":"attack_vector","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/attack_vector?post=80938"},{"taxonomy":"asset_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/asset_type?post=80938"},{"taxonomy":"severity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/severity?post=80938"},{"taxonomy":"exploit_status","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/exploit_status?post=80938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}