#microsoft

**According to the CVSS metric, the attack vector is local (AV:L). Why does the CVE title indicate that this is a remote code execution?** The word **Remote** in the title refers to the location of the attacker. This type of exploit is sometimes referred to as Arbitrary Code Execution (ACE). The attack itself is carried out locally. For example, when the score indicates that the **Attack Vector** is **Local** and **User Interaction** is **Required**, this could describe an exploit in which an attacker, through social engineering, convinces a victim to download and open a specially crafted file from a website which leads to a local attack on their computer.

**There are multiple update packages available for some of the affected software. Do I need to install all the updates listed in the Security Updates table for the software?** Yes. Customers should apply all updates offered for the software installed on their systems. If multiple updates apply, they can be installed in any order.

**According to the CVSS metric, the attack vector is local (AV:L). Why does the CVE title indicate that this is a remote code execution?** The word **Remote** in the title refers to the location of the attacker. This type of exploit is sometimes referred to as Arbitrary Code Execution (ACE). The attack itself is carried out locally. For example, when the score indicates that the **Attack Vector** is **Local** and **User Interaction** is **Required**, this could describe an exploit in which an attacker, through social engineering, convinces a victim to download and open a specially crafted file from a website which leads to a local attack on their computer.

**According to the CVSS metric, the attack complexity is high (AC:H). What does that mean for this vulnerability?** Successful exploitation of this vulnerability requires an attacker to win a race condition.

**What kind of security feature could be bypassed by successfully exploiting this vulnerability?** An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could bypass Office macro policies used to block untrusted or malicious files.

**According to the CVSS metric, the attack vector is local (AV:L). Why does the CVE title indicate that this is a remote code execution?** The word **Remote** in the title refers to the location of the attacker. This type of exploit is sometimes referred to as Arbitrary Code Execution (ACE). The attack itself is carried out locally. For example, when the score indicates that the **Attack Vector** is **Local** and **User Interaction** is **Required**, this could describe an exploit in which an attacker, through social engineering, convinces a victim to download and open a specially crafted file from a website which leads to a local attack on their computer.

**Is the Preview Pane an attack vector for this vulnerability?** Yes, the Preview Pane is an attack vector.

**According to the CVSS metric, the attack complexity is high (AC:H) and privileges required are low (PR:L). What does that mean for this vulnerability?** An attacker must gain access to the victim user's Microsoft Outlook account by compromising or stealing their login credential and then install a malicious form prior to exploiting the vulnerability successfully.

**Use Microsoft Outlook to reduce the risk of users opening RTF Files from unknown or untrusted sources** To help protect against this vulnerability, we recommend users read email messages in plain text format. For guidance on how to configure Microsoft Outlook to read all standard mail in plain text, please refer to Read email messages in plain text. **Impact of workaround:** Email messages that are viewed in plain text format will not contain pictures, specialized fonts, animations, or other rich content. In addition, the following behavior may be experienced: * The changes are applied to the preview pane and to open messages. * Pictures become attachments so that they are not lost. * Because the message is still in Rich Text or HTML format in the store, the object model (custom code solutions) may behave unexpectedly.

**According to the CVSS metric, successful exploitation of this vulnerability has a high impact on availability (A:H). What does that mean for this vulnerability??** An attacker can send specially crafted packets which could impact availability of the service resulting in Denial of Service (DoS).