CVE-2026-97772

Summary

Microsoft Excel suffers from a double free vulnerability that allows remote code execution when processing malicious files. This occurs due to improper memory management where the same memory block is freed twice, potentially leading to arbitrary code execution.

Exploitability

Exploitation requires a user to open a specially crafted Excel file, making it moderately difficult but possible with social engineering, and relies on the target having Microsoft Office installed.

Blast radius

If exploited, this vulnerability could affect all users running supported versions of Microsoft Office including Office 2021, Office 2024, and Office Online Server, potentially leading to widespread remote code execution across an organization.

Detection

No reliable host or network indicator is derivable from the published description.

Prioritized remediation

Deploy the Microsoft Security Update KB5042869 immediately to fix this vulnerability in all affected Office versions.

Analysis generated locally by garnet-coder (no data left the box). AI-assisted — verify against primary sources before acting.