Threats / Microsoft / CVE-2023-21715
CVE-2023-21715
· EUVD no mirror located
· GCVE no mirror located
Verified 2026-06-22
Microsoft Office vulnerability
Microsoft Office Publisher security feature bypass vulnerability allowing local authenticated attacks on targeted systems.
Verdict
Today item — known-exploited.
A local authenticated attacker can bypass security features in Microsoft Office Publisher. The vulnerability has been exploited in the wild, indicating active abuse despite requiring local access and prior authentication.
01
Is it exploitable?
— the evidence, ranked above the scoreReported exploitation
5 independent public reports of in-the-wild exploitation are cataloged.Distinct reporting sources (vendor, incident response, government); open them for the underlying claims.
Exploited in the wild
Listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2023-02-14).
Probability (EPSS)
EPSS 0.12107 — modeled likelihood of exploitation activity.EPSS is a daily-changing model output — open the source for today's value.
Severity / affected
Affected: Microsoft, Office. Confirm exact fixed builds in the vendor advisory.
Weakness (CWE)
Mapped to CWE-863 Incorrect Authorization — weakness family: Authorization / access control.CWE assignment from the public NVD record; the weakness class drives how the flaw is exploited.
02
Who’s exploiting it?
— attribution turns risk into urgencyAttribution not established
No confirmed (advisory-backed) threat-actor attribution is established for this record. Absence of a named actor is not absence of compromise — see Coverage & confidence.
03
Why it matters
— the attack path, told twice: adversary, then board1
Front door — unauthenticated access narrative 1
Attacker
I authenticate to a system where I have local user access.
Business
An insider or compromised account holder gains a foothold on corporate infrastructure.
2
Keys to the kingdom — privilege/identity takeover narrative 2
Attacker
I exploit the security feature bypass in Office Publisher to circumvent intended protections.
Business
Security controls designed to prevent unauthorized document manipulation or data exfiltration are rendered ineffective.
3
Lateral reach — past segmentation narrative 3
Attacker
I modify or extract sensitive content from Publisher documents without triggering expected safeguards.
Business
Confidential business documents, templates, or embedded data are compromised or altered without detection.
04
What to do
— defensible action- Remediate per the vendor advisory — confirm the fixed build for your version and verify exposure.1
Say it to the boardA vulnerability with this evidence profile is a defensible budget line, not a backlog ticket — fund the change against the proof above.
05