{"description":"Trending threats, MITRE ATT\u0026CK coverage, and detection metadata — refreshed continuously.","feed_url":"https://feed.craftedsignal.io/tags/cve-2026-23657/","home_page_url":"https://feed.craftedsignal.io/","items":[{"_cs_actors":[],"_cs_cves":[{"cvss":7.8,"id":"CVE-2026-23657"}],"_cs_exploited":false,"_cs_products":[],"_cs_severities":["high"],"_cs_tags":["use-after-free","code-execution","office","cve-2026-23657"],"_cs_type":"advisory","_cs_vendors":[],"content_html":"\u003cp\u003eOn April 14, 2026, CVE-2026-23657 was published, detailing a use-after-free vulnerability affecting Microsoft Office Word. This vulnerability allows an attacker with local access to execute arbitrary code on a vulnerable system. Successful exploitation requires user interaction, as the victim must open a specially crafted Word document. Due to the nature of use-after-free vulnerabilities, attackers can potentially achieve arbitrary code execution by manipulating memory allocation after a pointer to freed memory is dereferenced. This poses a significant threat to organizations as successful exploitation can lead to data theft, system compromise, and further lateral movement within the network. The vulnerability has a CVSS v3.1 score of 7.8, indicating a high severity.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"attack-chain\"\u003eAttack Chain\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003col\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAttacker crafts a malicious Microsoft Word document designed to trigger the use-after-free vulnerability (CVE-2026-23657).\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe attacker delivers the malicious document to the victim, likely via email or shared file storage.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe victim opens the malicious document in Microsoft Word.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe crafted document exploits a weakness in memory management, freeing a memory region while a pointer to it is still in use.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe attacker leverages the use-after-free condition to overwrite the freed memory with attacker-controlled data.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eUpon dereferencing the dangling pointer, the corrupted data is executed, leading to code execution.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe attacker executes arbitrary code within the context of the user running Microsoft Word.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe attacker may then install malware, steal sensitive information, or establish a persistent foothold on the compromised system.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ol\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"impact\"\u003eImpact\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSuccessful exploitation of CVE-2026-23657 allows an attacker to execute arbitrary code on a vulnerable system with the privileges of the user running Microsoft Word. This can lead to the installation of malware, theft of sensitive data, and further compromise of the system and network. The impact of this vulnerability is significant, as Microsoft Word is widely used in organizations of all sizes, making it a valuable target for attackers. The potential for arbitrary code execution elevates this vulnerability to a high-risk level, demanding immediate attention from security teams.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"recommendation\"\u003eRecommendation\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eApply the patch released by Microsoft to address CVE-2026-23657 on all systems running Microsoft Office Word. (Reference: \u003ca href=\"https://msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/vulnerability/CVE-2026-23657\"\u003ehttps://msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/vulnerability/CVE-2026-23657\u003c/a\u003e)\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDeploy the Sigma rule \u003ccode\u003eDetect Suspicious Word Child Process\u003c/code\u003e to detect potentially malicious processes spawned by Microsoft Word.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eEnable process creation logging to capture process execution events, ensuring the Sigma rule has the necessary data to function.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n","date_modified":"2026-04-15T12:00:00Z","date_published":"2026-04-15T12:00:00Z","id":"/briefs/2026-04-cve-2026-23657-word-uaf/","summary":"CVE-2026-23657 is a use-after-free vulnerability in Microsoft Office Word allowing a local attacker to execute arbitrary code with user privileges.","title":"Microsoft Word Use-After-Free Vulnerability CVE-2026-23657","url":"https://feed.craftedsignal.io/briefs/2026-04-cve-2026-23657-word-uaf/"}],"language":"en","title":"CraftedSignal Threat Feed — Cve-2026-23657","version":"https://jsonfeed.org/version/1.1"}