{"id":81732,"date":"2025-10-05T03:30:23","date_gmt":"2025-10-05T03:30:23","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2025-10-21T14:51:46","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T20:51:46","slug":"cve-2025-53741-heap-based-buffer-overflow-vulnerability-in-microsoft-office-excel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-53741-heap-based-buffer-overflow-vulnerability-in-microsoft-office-excel\/","title":{"rendered":"<strong>CVE-2025-53741: Heap-Based Buffer Overflow Vulnerability in Microsoft Office Excel<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Overview<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The cybersecurity world is witnessing a new vulnerability that affects Microsoft Office Excel. Identified as CVE-2025-53741, this vulnerability is a heap-based buffer overflow that allows an unauthorized attacker to execute code locally. Given the wide usage of Excel across organizations worldwide, this <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-52930-high-risk-memory-corruption-vulnerability-in-sail-image-decoding-library\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"90860\">vulnerability poses a significant risk<\/a>. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-9483-critical-buffer-overflow-vulnerability-in-linksys-devices\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"88964\">Buffer overflow vulnerabilities<\/a> are not new, but their impact can be severe due to the potential for system compromise or data leakage.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Vulnerability Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>CVE ID: CVE-2025-53741<br \/>\nSeverity: High (CVSS 7.8)<br \/>\nAttack Vector: Local<br \/>\nPrivileges Required: None<br \/>\nUser Interaction: Required<br \/>\nImpact: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-10534-critical-firefox-and-thunderbird-vulnerability-leading-to-possible-system-compromise-and-data-leakage\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"89436\">System compromise or data<\/a> leakage<\/p>\n<p><strong>Affected Products<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"ameeb-3471959899\" 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=\"89207\">Microsoft Office<\/a> Excel | All versions prior to the latest patch<\/p>\n<p><strong>How the Exploit Works<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A heap-based <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-40795-critical-buffer-overflow-vulnerability-in-simatic-pcs-neo-and-umc\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"88976\">buffer overflow is a type of vulnerability<\/a> which occurs when data written to a buffer exceeds its capacity, and overflows onto the adjacent memory, causing it to overwrite other data. In the case of CVE-2025-53741, an attacker can exploit Excel&#8217;s failure to properly allocate and monitor the size of objects or data in memory. By sending a specially crafted file to the victim and tricking them into opening it with Excel, the attacker can <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-24404-xml-injection-remote-code-execution-vulnerability-in-apache-hertzbeat\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"88963\">execute arbitrary code<\/a> in the context of the current user.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Conceptual Example Code<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"ameeb-56048174\" 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>Here is a conceptual example of how this vulnerability might be exploited. This is not actual code but an illustrative scenario to show how an attacker might take advantage of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-9482-critical-buffer-overflow-vulnerability-in-linksys-routers\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"88980\">buffer overflow<\/a>:<\/p>\n<pre><code class=\"\" data-line=\"\"># An attacker creates a specially crafted Excel file with oversized cells\nmalicious_file = create_excel_file_with_oversized_cells()\n# This file is then sent to the victim, who opens it with Excel\nopen_excel_file(malicious_file)\n# The oversized cells cause a buffer overflow, allowing the attacker to execute code\nexecute_code(malicious_file)<\/code><\/pre>\n<p><strong>Mitigation Guidance<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It is strongly recommended that users and administrators apply the vendor patch as soon as possible. In the absence of a patch, a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or an Intrusion Detection System (IDS) can serve as temporary mitigation. However, these measures can only detect and possibly block known exploits and may not protect against new or unknown ones. Therefore, applying the vendor patch remains the most effective <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-30519-default-root-credentials-vulnerability-in-dover-fueling-solutions-progauge-maglink-lx4-devices\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"90206\">solution to this vulnerability<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Overview The cybersecurity world is witnessing a new vulnerability that affects Microsoft Office Excel. Identified as CVE-2025-53741, this vulnerability is a heap-based buffer overflow that allows an unauthorized attacker to execute code locally. Given the wide usage of Excel across organizations worldwide, this vulnerability poses a significant risk. Buffer overflow vulnerabilities are not new, but [&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":[86],"asset_type":[],"severity":[],"exploit_status":[],"class_list":["post-81732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","vendor-microsoft","attack_vector-buffer-overflow"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81732","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=81732"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81732\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83806,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81732\/revisions\/83806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81732"},{"taxonomy":"vendor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vendor?post=81732"},{"taxonomy":"product","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product?post=81732"},{"taxonomy":"attack_vector","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/attack_vector?post=81732"},{"taxonomy":"asset_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/asset_type?post=81732"},{"taxonomy":"severity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/severity?post=81732"},{"taxonomy":"exploit_status","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/exploit_status?post=81732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}