CVE-2023-21716

CRITICALNVD 9.89.8—
EchelonGraph scoreMEDIUM confidence

Score 9.8 from GitHub Security Advisory (severity: CRITICAL) published 2023-02-14. NVD baseline CVSS 9.8; sources differ by 0.0.

Triggered by: GitHub Security Advisory CVSS
Sources: epss, ghsa, nvd
Elevated
9.8
EchelonGraph verdictPatch this weekExploitation is likely or a public exploit exists.
  • High exploitation likelihood — EPSS 82%
CISA-KEV: Not listedEPSS: 82%CVSS: 9.8Exploit: NoneExposed: 0

No vendor fix yet — apply a workaround or compensating control (WAF / firewall / segmentation) and watch for a patch.

Microsoft Word Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

CVSS v3
9.8
EG Score
9.8(medium)
EG Risk
92(Track)
EG Risk 92/100SSVC: Track

EG Risk is EchelonGraph's 0–100 priority score: it fuses intrinsic severity with real-world exploitation and automatability so you can rank equal-severity CVEs and fix the most dangerous first. Higher = act sooner. Distinct from the 0–10 EG Score (severity).

How it’s computed
Severity98% × 45%
Exploitation82% × 40%
Automatability100% × 15%
Action: Routine — remediate on your standard cadence.
EPSS
99.6%
KEV
Not listed

Published

February 14, 2023

Last Modified

November 21, 2024

Advisory Details (1)

Auto-updated Jun 10, 2026
Patch available. Sources: microsoft.
microsoft Patch Available

Security Update Guide - Microsoft Security Response Center

Security Update Guide - Microsoft Security Response Center. Patch available via Microsoft Security Update

https://msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/vulnerability/CVE-2023-21716

Weakness Classification(1)

MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.

All Vendor Advisories

(1)

Every vendor that published an advisory referencing this CVE — pulled from our cve_vendor_advisories aggregation. Click any row for the vendor's original advisory page.

Data Freshness Timeline

(refreshed 6× in last 7d / 20× in last 30d)

Each row is a source pipeline that fetched or updated this CVE on that date, with what changed. For example, "NVD update" means NVD published or revised its analysis for this CVE; "MITRE cvelistV5" means we ingested or refreshed it from the CNA feed. Most recent first.

  1. 2026-07-24 14:15 UTCEPSS rescore
  2. 2026-07-23 02:18 UTCEG score recompute
  3. 2026-07-22 23:06 UTCEG score recompute
  4. 2026-07-22 14:06 UTCEPSS rescore
  5. 2026-07-21 15:23 UTCEPSS rescore
  6. 2026-07-20 17:05 UTCEPSS rescore
  7. 2026-07-16 17:01 UTCEPSS rescore
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  10. 2026-07-12 05:45 UTCEPSS rescore
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  15. 2026-07-02 16:58 UTCEPSS rescore
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  21. 2026-06-24 14:03 UTCEPSS rescore
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  23. 2026-06-23 21:31 UTCEPSS rescore
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  25. 2026-06-21 14:55 UTCEPSS rescore
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  1. 2026-06-21 14:55 UTCEPSS rescore
  2. 2026-06-21 01:58 UTCEPSS rescore
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  4. 2026-06-17 17:51 UTCEPSS rescore
  5. 2026-06-17 17:51 UTCEPSS rescore
  6. 2026-06-15 17:47 UTCEPSS rescore
  7. 2026-06-10 22:17 UTCEPSS rescore
  8. 2026-06-10 13:21 UTCEPSS rescore
  9. 2026-06-10 13:21 UTCEPSS rescore
  10. 2026-06-06 13:46 UTCEPSS rescore
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  12. 2026-06-05 22:46 UTCEPSS rescore
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  15. 2026-06-02 20:12 UTCEPSS rescore
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  18. 2026-06-01 13:51 UTCEPSS rescore
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  20. 2026-05-31 22:29 UTCEPSS rescore
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  22. 2026-05-31 22:29 UTCEPSS rescore
  23. 2026-05-28 13:43 UTCEPSS rescore
  24. 2026-05-28 13:43 UTCEPSS rescore
  25. 2026-05-27 13:39 UTCEPSS rescore
  26. 2026-05-26 13:43 UTCEPSS rescore
  27. 2026-05-26 13:43 UTCEPSS rescore
  28. 2026-05-26 07:18 UTCEPSS rescore
  29. 2026-05-26 07:17 UTCEPSS rescore
  30. 2026-05-26 07:17 UTCEPSS rescore
  31. 2026-05-25 06:45 UTCEG score recompute
  32. 2026-05-25 06:45 UTCVendor advisory
  33. 2026-05-25 06:45 UTCGHSA enrichment

Publicly available exploits

(8 references)

Working exploit code is in the public domain (8 GitHub PoCs). Defenders should treat patch urgency accordingly — public PoCs typically lead to mass-exploitation within 24-72 hours.

  • GitHub PoCRonF98/CVE-2023-21716-POC
    First seen Sep 16, 2024

    Proof Of Concept for CVE-2023-21716 Microsoft Word Heap Corruption

    Open source ↗
  • GitHub PoCMojithaR/CVE-2023-21716-EXPLOIT.py
    First seen Nov 4, 2023

    This is an exploit file which is used to check CVE-2021-21716 vulnerability

    Open source ↗
  • GitHub PoCLord-of-the-IoT/CVE-2023-21716
    First seen Jun 13, 2023

    python program to exploit CVE-2023-21716

    Open source ↗
  • GitHub PoCJMousqueton/CVE-2023-21716
    First seen Apr 16, 2023

    POC : CVE-2023-21716 Microsoft Word RTF Font Table Heap Corruption

    Open source ↗
  • GitHub PoChv0l/CVE-2023-21716_exploit
    First seen Mar 24, 2023

    test of exploit for CVE-2023-21716

    Open source ↗
  • GitHub PoCgyaansastra/CVE-2023-21716
    First seen Mar 8, 2023

    A vulnerability within Microsoft Office's wwlib allows attackers to achieve remote code execution with the privileges of the victim that opens a malicious RTF document. The attacker could deliver this file as an email attachment (or other means).

    Open source ↗
  • GitHub PoCFeatherStark/CVE-2023-21716
    First seen Mar 7, 2023
    Open source ↗
  • GitHub PoCXnuvers007/CVE-2023-21716
    First seen Mar 7, 2023

    RTF Crash POC Python 3.11 Windows 10

    Open source ↗

Related CVEs(same vendor + same CWE)

Frequently asked(5)

What is CVE-2023-21716?
CVE-2023-21716 is a critical vulnerability published on February 14, 2023. Microsoft Word Remote Code Execution Vulnerability
When was CVE-2023-21716 disclosed?
CVE-2023-21716 was first published in the National Vulnerability Database on February 14, 2023, with the most recent update on November 21, 2024. EchelonGraph re-ingests CVE updates from NVD on a 2-hour cycle, so this page reflects the latest published state.
Is CVE-2023-21716 actively exploited?
CVE-2023-21716 is not currently on CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. FIRST EPSS estimates a 99.6% percentile likelihood of exploitation in the next 30 days — higher percentiles indicate greater predicted risk.
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2023-21716?
CVE-2023-21716 has a CVSS v3 base score of 9.8 (NVD).
How do I remediate CVE-2023-21716?
Patch to the fixed version published by the affected vendor. Where vendor advisories exist for CVE-2023-21716, EchelonGraph cross-links them in the Vendor Advisories panel below — those typically contain the canonical remediation steps, fixed version numbers, and any vendor-specific mitigations.

Dependency Blast Radius

Explore the affected products and dependency analysis for CVE-2023-21716

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