CVE-2009-3129 — Microsoft Excel Featheader Record Memory Corruption Vulnerability

Microsoft Office Excel 2002 SP3, 2003 SP3, and 2007 SP1 and SP2; Office 2004 and 2008 for Mac; Open XML File Format Converter for Mac; Office Excel Viewer 2003 SP3; Office Excel Viewer SP1 and SP2; and Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats SP

01What is this vulnerability?

Microsoft Office Excel 2002 SP3, 2003 SP3, and 2007 SP1 and SP2; Office 2004 and 2008 for Mac; Open XML File Format Converter for Mac; Office Excel Viewer 2003 SP3; Office Excel Viewer SP1 and SP2; and Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats SP1 and SP2 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via a spreadsheet with a FEATHEADER record containing an…

02Affected products

Vendor	Product	Versions
n	a / n/a	n/a

03Active exploitation status

Yes — actively exploited. Added to the CISA KEV catalog on 2022-03-03. Ransomware use: Unknown.

04Recommended remediation

• Patch to a fixed version listed in the vendor advisory (see references below).
• Mitigate with WAF rules, network egress filters, or feature flags where the patch is not yet available.
• Hunt historical logs for exploitation indicators — see Detection signatures below.

05Technical details

For the full vendor write-up, exploit chains, and reference implementations, see the references list in section 09.

06Detection signatures

Open the Sigma generator with a pre-filled prompt for this CVE to draft a starting detection in your stack of choice:

Open in Sigma generator →

07Related CVEs

No directly-cited follow-up CVEs in the KB record for this advisory. The references list in section 09 carries the vendor cross-references.

08Timeline

• Published: 2009-11-11T19:00:00.000Z
• Last modified: 2025-10-22T00:05:54.084Z
• Added to CISA KEV: 2022-03-03
• BOD 22-01 due: 2022-03-24

09References

• osvdb.org — http://osvdb.org/59860
• oval.cisecurity.org — https://oval.cisecurity.org/repository/search/definition/oval%3Aorg.mitre.oval%3…
• www.securitytracker.com — http://www.securitytracker.com/id?1023157
• www.securityfocus.com — http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/36945
• www.us-cert.gov — http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/techalerts/TA09-314A.html
• labs.idefense.com — http://labs.idefense.com/intelligence/vulnerabilities/display.php?id=832
• docs.microsoft.com — https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/security-updates/securitybulletins/2009/ms09-06…
• archives.neohapsis.com — http://archives.neohapsis.com/archives/bugtraq/2009-11/0080.html
• www.zerodayinitiative.com — http://www.zerodayinitiative.com/advisories/ZDI-09-083
• www.exploit-db.com — http://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/14706