Microsoft has disclosed a zero-day vulnerability in Microsoft Office Word that allows attackers to bypass security protections.
Identified as CVE-2026-21514, this security flaw was officially documented on February 10, 2026, and poses significant risks to users worldwide.
Vulnerability Overview
CVE-2026-21514 is classified as a Security Feature Bypass vulnerability affecting Microsoft Word.
The weakness stems from the application’s reliance on untrusted inputs when making security decisions, categorized under CWE-807.
This design flaw enables unauthorized attackers to circumvent protective measures that would normally prevent malicious activities.
The vulnerability carries an “Important” severity rating with a CVSS score of 7.8 out of 10, indicating substantial risk.
What makes this particularly concerning is that exploitation has already been detected in the wild, and the vulnerability has been publicly disclosed before patches were widely available.
| Attribute | Details |
|---|---|
| CVE ID | CVE-2026-21514 |
| Impact | Security Feature Bypass |
| CVSS Score | 7.8 / 7.2 |
| Attack Vector | Local |
| Privileges Required | None |
| User Interaction | Required |
| Exploitation Status | Detected |
The attack requires local access to the target system with low complexity, meaning attackers don’t need special privileges to exploit the flaw.
However, user interaction is necessary, typically through opening a malicious Word document.
Once exploited, attackers can achieve high impact across confidentiality, integrity, and availability.
Microsoft’s exploitability index confirms that functional exploit code exists, and active exploitation has been observed.
This “Exploitation Detected” status means threat actors are already leveraging this vulnerability in real-world attacks.
The remediation level is marked as “Official Fix,” indicating Microsoft has released security updates to address the issue.
Organizations and individuals using Microsoft Word should immediately apply security patches available through the Microsoft Security Update Guide.
Users should exercise caution when opening Word documents from untrusted sources, as this remains the primary attack vector.
System administrators should prioritize patching across all endpoints and implement additional security controls such as email filtering and user awareness training.
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