Out-of-bounds read RCE in Microsoft Office Word
CVE-2026-20944 is a Microsoft Office Word remote code execution vulnerability caused by an out-of-bounds read. The available source material identifies the flaw as affecting Microsoft Office Word and states that successful exploitation allows an unauthorized attacker to execute code locally. Multiple summaries further indicate the bug is triggered through a crafted malicious Word/Office document and that, in some deployment scenarios, the Outlook Preview Pane may be a viable attack vector, allowing exploitation without the user explicitly opening the document. The vulnerability is referenced by Microsoft in the MSRC Update Guide and is mapped to CWE-125.
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Impact, mitigation & remediation
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Impact
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Mitigation
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Remediation
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Exploits
No public exploits tracked yet. Mallory keeps watching.
No public exploit code observed for this vulnerability.
Affected products & vendors
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Vendor-confirmed product mapping. Mallory continuously reconciles this list against your asset inventory.
Recent activity
16 sources tracked across advisories, community write-ups, and news. New activity surfaces here as Mallory finds it.
Critical Microsoft Word remote code execution via maliciously crafted Office content; includes an Outlook preview-pane exploitation vector per the content.
A Microsoft Word RCE risk stemming from an out-of-bounds read during document processing, potentially triggerable via Preview Pane rendering (reduced user interaction).
A Microsoft Word RCE risk stemming from an out-of-bounds read during document processing, potentially triggerable via Preview Pane rendering (reduced user interaction).
A remote code execution vulnerability in Microsoft Word involving an out-of-bounds read, triggered by opening (or previewing) a malicious file.
The version that knows your environment.
Query your assets running an affected version, and investigate the blast radius.
Every observed campaign linking this CVE to a named adversary.
Malware families riding this exploit, with evidence and IOCs.
YARA, Sigma, Snort, and vendor rules, auto-deployed to your SIEM.
Cross-references every affected SKU, including bundled OEM variants.
Community discussion across Reddit, Mastodon, and other social sources.