Vulnerability report

Exploited in the wild Confirmed confidence In CISA KEV

CVE-2014-1761

Word Denial of Service

Microsoft / Word

Watch CVE-2014-1761 Browse KEV feed
Severity
CVSS 7.8 · High
Confidence
Confirmed
Exploit status
Exploited in the wild
EPSS
77.5%
First observed
—
Last observed
—

Decision summary

What security teams need to know first

Direct answers before the deeper technical record.

What it is

CVE-2014-1761 is an unauthenticated vulnerability affecting Microsoft Word. Microsoft Word 2003 SP3, 2007 SP3, 2010 SP1 and SP2, 2013, and 2013 RT; Word Viewer; Office Compatibility Pack SP3; Office for Mac 2011; Word...

Is it exploited?

Yes. Previdian tracks this CVE as a known exploited vulnerability. Confidence is confirmed. Listed in CISA KEV.

Who is affected?

Microsoft / Word.

What should we do?

Prioritize remediation. Validate affected assets and apply vendor fixes on an accelerated timeline.

Overview

Word Denial of Service

Microsoft Word 2003 SP3, 2007 SP3, 2010 SP1 and SP2, 2013, and 2013 RT; Word Viewer; Office Compatibility Pack SP3; Office for Mac 2011; Word Automation Services on SharePoint Server 2010 SP1 and SP2 and 2013; Office Web Apps 2010 SP1 and SP2; and Office Web Apps Server 2013 allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (memory corruption) via crafted RTF data, as exploited in the wild in March 2014.

View vendor advisory (opens in new tab)
Published
24 Mar 2014
Exploitation Reported
15 Feb 2022
Attack vector
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
Required

Tags

metasploit cisa

CVE References

  • CVE Record CVE.org · CVE Record https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2014-1761
  • MS14-017 docs.microsoft.com · Vendor Advisory https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/security-updates/securitybulletins/2...
  • technet.microsoft.com/security/advisory/2953095 technet.microsoft.com · CVE Record http://technet.microsoft.com/security/advisory/2953095

Exploitation evidence

Why Previdian marks this CVE as exploited

Third-party attestation and first-party sensor observation are shown separately so teams can judge the evidence chain.

Exploited in the wild

CISA

Recorded 15 Feb 2022

A trusted third party reported exploitation.

Proof of concept available

Recorded 28 Apr 2025

Public scanner or PoC coverage increases practical exploitability.

Known exploited vulnerability sources

Per-source evidence links for KEV attestations are available through the Previdian Pro API.

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Source Added
CISA First 2022-02-15 00:00 UTC

Detection

Operational artifacts and observed signals

Make the evidence actionable in scanner, SOC, and edge-control workflows.

Observed signals

Request targets
User-Agents
Callback hosts
0
0
0

Request targets and User-Agents available in Pro. Callback host details available in Enterprise.

Virtual patch status

No Previdian virtual patch is currently available. Future rules ship for ModSecurity, Cloudflare, and AWS WAF.

Learn about virtual patches →

Scanner Artifacts

Scanner and exploit-framework references linked to this CVE.

Scanner Reference Detected
Metasploit https://github.com/rapid7/metasploit-framework/blob/master/modules/exploits/windows/fileformat/ms14_017_rtf.rb 28 Apr 2025

Risk and context

Severity, weaknesses, and research context

CVSS v3.1

7.8 High

Potential damage if exploited. Separate from whether attackers are using it.

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

EPSS

77.5%

Estimated chance of exploitation in the next 30 days. Previdian's warning comes from evidence, not this score.

Weaknesses

Out-of-bounds Write CWE-787

All CVSS Scores

CVSS v3.1 7.8 High

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

CVSS v2.0 9.3 High

AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

Potential Proof of Concepts

These PoCs are unverified and could contain malware. Use at your own risk.

ms14_017_rtf

metasploit · Created Unknown

Metasploit module for CVE-2014-1761

Timeline

From disclosure to observed exploitation

  1. 15:02 UTC

    Metasploit module available

    Exploit module available

  2. 15:02 UTC

    Public PoC available

    Public proof-of-concept code published

  3. 00:00 UTC

    Added to CISA KEV

    Listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

  4. 19:00 UTC

    CVE published

    Vulnerability disclosed publicly

  5. 00:00 UTC

    CVE ID reserved

    Identifier reserved by the CNA

Pro API

Automate this intelligence

Confidence, exploit status, sensor telemetry, PoCs, scanner integrations, mentions, and tags are available programmatically for VM, SOC, and CTI workflows.

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  • Evidence confidence and provenance
  • First-party sensor telemetry
  • PoC and scanner references
  • Affected versions and enrichment
  • Automation-ready JSON delivery

GET /api/v2/pro/kevs/CVE-2014-1761

Free JSON includes basic KEV fields 
{
  "cve_id": "CVE-2014-1761",
  "confidence": "Confirmed",
  "cvss_score": 7.8,
  "cvss_estimated": false,
  "epss_score": 0.7746,
  "exploit_status": {
    "exploited_in_the_wild": true,
    "active_exploitation_observed": false
  },
  "sensor_telemetry": { "attempts": 0, "sensors": 0 }
}