Microsoft Windows Object Linking & Embedding (OLE) Remote Code Execution Vulnerability (CVE-2014-4114)
Published In CISA KEV since Sources: CVE.org
What is affected, what to do
Microsoft Windows Vista SP2, Windows Server 2008 SP2 and R2 SP1, Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012 Gold and R2, and Windows RT Gold and 8.1 allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via a crafted OLE object in an Office document, as exploited in the wild with a "Sandworm" attack in June through October 2014, aka "Windows OLE Remote Code Execution Vulnerability."
The vulnerability is being actively exploited; treat it as a priority. The available sources name no fixed version. Check the vendor guidance in the references below. Immediate actions, mitigation and detection rules are in the runbook below.
- Affected
- Microsoft Windows Server 2008
eq r2..r2 - Microsoft Windows Server 2012
eq r2..r2
- Microsoft Windows Server 2008
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Metrics
7.8
Priority
XIEM Effective CVSS: highest available CVSS rating from NVD and vendor data.
Source: Vendor (CNA), CVSS v3
7.8
CVSS v3
Severity High on the scale from 0 to 10.
Source: CVE.org
81.6 %
EPSS score
High — model estimates ≥ 50% chance of real-world exploitation within 30 days.
Source: FIRST EPSS, percentile 99.64
Show all metrics
- Severity
- Critical
Priority (0–325)
The priority score is a consolidated metric that condenses several individual signals into a single, action-guiding ranking: technical severity (CVSS), exploitation likelihood (EPSS), known-exploited status (KEV) and the context of the affected asset. The aim is to answer the only truly important question in vulnerability management: what first?
Read in glossary- 218.43 Methodology
Exploit maturity
An exploit is code or a technique that specifically uses a concrete vulnerability to force unintended behaviour — such as executing code or escalating privileges. It is the tool that turns a theoretical flaw into a practical attack.
Read in glossary- actively exploited
XIEM Effective CVSS
XIEM® is the tiered managed-security operating model from NEOSEC and a registered trademark of NEOSEC GmbH. It extends classic SIEM — the central collection, normalisation and correlation of security-relevant events — with endpoint forensics, network visibility and deception technology, and consolidates them into three building tiers: Sentry, Orchestrate and Command.
Read in glossary- 7.8 Methodology
CVSS v3
CVSS is the globally established, open standard for assessing the technical severity of a vulnerability on a scale from 0 to 10. It describes how easily a flaw can be exploited and what damage it can cause — but not how likely its actual exploitation is. CVSS and the complementary EPSS deliberately answer different questions.
Read in glossary- 7.8
EPSS score
The EPSS score is the absolute model output for an individual vulnerability: the estimated probability of real-world exploitation within the next 30 days, expressed as a value between 0 and 1 (i.e. 0 % to 100 %). A score of 0.42 means „the model estimates a 42 % chance of real-world exploitation within 30 days“.
Read in glossary- 81.6 %
- High — model estimates ≥ 50% chance of real-world exploitation within 30 days.
EPSS percentile
The EPSS percentile is the relative position of a vulnerability within all EPSS-scored CVEs, expressed as a value between 0 and 1. A percentile of 0.90 means „this CVE has a higher EPSS score than 90 % of all other scored CVEs“. Unlike the EPSS score, it is not a probability — but a positioning within a ranking.
Read in glossary- 99.64
- Critical — this CVE ranks in the top fifth of all CVEs scored today (rank ≥ 80%).
KEV status
The KEV catalogue is a list maintained by the US authority CISA of vulnerabilities for which active exploitation in the wild has been confirmed. It answers not the question „how severe?“ but „is it already being attacked?“ — thereby sharply prioritising patching.
Read in glossary- Actively exploited
- Published
In CISA KEV since
The KEV catalogue is a list maintained by the US authority CISA of vulnerabilities for which active exploitation in the wild has been confirmed. It answers not the question „how severe?“ but „is it already being attacked?“ — thereby sharply prioritising patching.
Read in glossary- CISA assessment (SSVC)
- Exploitation: active · not automatable · Technical impact: total
- Source: CISA Vulnrichment, as of 10 February 2025
Response and mitigation
Why act now?
Prioritisation rationale
This CVE is on KEV because, per its description, it served as the spearphishing vector in the 2014 "Sandworm" campaign, delivered through crafted Office documents. Don't be misled by the local attack vector and the need for user interaction: once delivered by e-mail, simply opening a presentation gives full compromise with no prior authentication. Exploitation likelihood is very high, and CISA does not flag ransomware use. Well-maintained, current Windows estates face little risk, but KRITIS operators running legacy hosts in OT, control-room or engineering networks should treat this as high priority, because that is exactly the target profile this exploit has historically been aimed at.
Runbook step 1
Immediate response (0-24 h)
- Verify and deploy the patch: Confirm that the CVE-2014-4114 fix (Microsoft Security Bulletin MS14-060, KB3000869) is installed on every affected Windows host; cross-check the details against the Microsoft advisory. Also check for the follow-up fix for the bypass variant CVE-2014-6352 (MS14-064), which abuses the same OLE Packager path.
- Inventory legacy hosts: Enumerate all Windows 7, 8/8.1, RT, Server 2008/2008 R2 and Server 2012/2012 R2 assets. Most of these are end-of-life. Flag anything without ESU coverage as high-risk and queue it for migration or isolation.
- Block outbound SMB: Deny TCP 445/139 and WebDAV (via the WebClient service) from internal networks to the internet at the perimeter. The original exploit pulls its payload files from attacker-controlled UNC shares.
- Quarantine weaponised Office files: At the mail gateway, quarantine or sanitise (CDR) inbound PowerPoint Show files (
.ppsx,.pps) and Office documents carrying embedded OLE Packager objects. - Compromise sweep: On exposed legacy hosts, hunt
%TEMP%for.inffiles and suspicious.gif/.exepairs, and checkHKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOncefor new entries. If you find anything, isolate the host and preserve evidence.
Runbook step 2
Mitigation layers
- Network segmentation: Move unpatched legacy systems, especially those in or near OT/ICS zones, into a dedicated VLAN with no direct internet or e-mail access. Allow file exchange only through vetted transfer gateways.
- Endpoint hardening (ASR): Where Defender is available, set the ASR rule "Block all Office applications from creating child processes" (
D4F940AB-401B-4EFC-AADC-AD5F3C50688A) to block mode. Pair it with "Block Office applications from creating executable content". - Office configuration: Enforce Protected View via GPO for internet-sourced files and attachments. Disable activation of OLE packages and Packager objects where your Office version supports it.
- Application control: Use AppLocker/WDAC to stop standard users from running
InfDefaultInstall.exeand binaries from%TEMP%or%APPDATA%. - IPS/proxy: Enable signatures for OLE Packager objects in Office documents (Suricata/Snort, ET rules for CVE-2014-4114/MS14-060). Alert on outbound SMB to public IPs rather than silently dropping it.
- Least privilege: Remove local admin rights from end users. Without elevation, the UAC-dependent CVE-2014-6352 variant fails.
Runbook step 3
Detection rules
- Sysmon EID 1 / EDR process ancestry:
POWERPNT.EXEorWINWORD.EXEspawningInfDefaultInstall.exe,rundll32.exe(withsetupapi) or any binary from%TEMP%. Sigma shape:ParentImage|endswith: '\POWERPNT.EXE'ANDImage|endswith: '\InfDefaultInstall.exe'. - Sysmon EID 3 / Zeek
smb_files.log: An Office process opening a connection to TCP 445 on a public IP. KQL:DeviceNetworkEvents | where InitiatingProcessFileName in~ ("powerpnt.exe","winword.exe") and RemotePort == 445 and RemoteIPType == "Public" - Sysmon EID 11: An Office process writing
.inffiles to%TEMP%, followed by a.giffile being renamed to.exe. - Sysmon EID 13 / Windows Security 4657: A new value under
...\CurrentVersion\RunOnceshortly after an Office document is opened. - Mail/proxy logs:
.ppsxattachments delivered to individual recipients in energy, government or industrial-control roles. Correlate with endpoint telemetry within a few minutes.
- Sysmon EID 1 / EDR process ancestry:
Detection rules
No NEOSEC detection rule is available for this vulnerability yet.
Classification under NIS2 and CRA
Rule-based classification from exploitation status and severity. It does not replace a case-by-case assessment.
NIS2
NIS2 is EU Directive (EU) 2022/2555 to raise the level of cybersecurity across the Union. It substantially broadens obligations compared with the first NIS directive: more sectors, mandatory risk management, staged reporting duties and personal accountability of senior management.
Read in glossary- Actively exploited: treat the vulnerability as a priority in vulnerability handling under Art. 21(2)(e) NIS2. If it is exploited in your environment, check the reporting obligation under Art. 23 (early warning within 24 hours).
CRA
The CRA is EU Regulation (EU) 2024/2847 setting horizontal cybersecurity requirements for „products with digital elements“ — from industrial controllers and software to connected consumer devices. For the first time manufacturers must ensure security across the entire product lifecycle, handle vulnerabilities and provide security updates.
Read in glossary- Since 11.09.2026, manufacturers of affected products with digital elements must report actively exploited vulnerabilities under Art. 14 CRA, with an early warning within 24 hours via ENISA's single reporting platform.
ISO/IEC 27001
ISO/IEC 27001 is the internationally leading standard for an information security management system (ISMS). It describes a risk-based, process-oriented framework to systematically plan, implement, review and improve information security.
Read in glossary- Control A.8.8, management of technical vulnerabilities: assess relevance to your systems, plan remediation and keep evidence.
Description
Microsoft Windows Vista SP2, Windows Server 2008 SP2 and R2 SP1, Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012 Gold and R2, and Windows RT Gold and 8.1 allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via a crafted OLE object in an Office document, as exploited in the wild with a "Sandworm" attack in June through October 2014, aka "Windows OLE Remote Code Execution Vulnerability."
Source: NVD (NIST), cvelistv5, CISA KEV Catalog, CVE.org (MITRE)
Vendors and products
- Microsoft Microsoft Windows 7
- Microsoft Microsoft Windows 8 Professional Edition
- Microsoft Microsoft Windows 8.1
- Microsoft Microsoft Windows RT Gold
- Microsoft Microsoft Windows RT 8.1
- Microsoft Microsoft Windows Server 2008
- Microsoft Microsoft Windows Server 2012
- Microsoft Microsoft Windows Vista Gold on X64
Affected operating systems
| Windows | microsoft | windows_7 | — |
| Windows | microsoft | windows_8 | — |
| Windows | microsoft | windows_8.1 | — |
| Windows | microsoft | windows_rt | — |
| Windows | microsoft | windows_rt_8.1 | — |
| Windows | microsoft | windows_server_2008 | r2 |
| Windows | microsoft | windows_server_2008 | — |
| Windows | microsoft | windows_server_2012 | r2 |
| Windows | microsoft | windows_server_2012 | — |
| Windows | microsoft | windows_vista | — |
Public exploit references
Publicly reported proof-of-concepts, exploit modules and detection templates for this vulnerability. NEOSEC links to the original sources only and does not provide any exploit code.
| CISA KEV Catalog | CISA Known Exploited Vulnerability (opens in a new tab)cisa.gov | actively exploited | |
| Exploit-DB | EDB-ID 35019 (opens in a new tab)exploit-db.com | PoC (publicly reported)reported, not verified | — |
| Exploit-DB | EDB-ID 35020 (opens in a new tab)exploit-db.com | PoC (publicly reported)reported, not verified | — |
| Exploit-DB | EDB-ID 35055 (opens in a new tab)exploit-db.com | PoC (publicly reported)reported, not verified | — |
References & sources
- blogs.technet.comb/srd/archive/2014/10/14/accessing-risk-for-the-october-2014-se…x_refsource_CONFIRM, Broken link, Vendor advisory
- isightpartners.com2014/10/cve-2014-4114x_refsource_MISC, Broken link
- secunia.com60972Third-party advisory, x_refsource_SECUNIA, Broken link
- exploit-db.com35055Exploit, x_refsource_EXPLOIT-DB, Exploit, Third-party advisory, Vulnerability database
- exploit-db.com35019Exploit, x_refsource_EXPLOIT-DB, Exploit, Third-party advisory, Vulnerability database
- exploit-db.com35020Exploit, x_refsource_EXPLOIT-DB, Exploit, Third-party advisory, Vulnerability database
- securityfocus.com70419Vulnerability database, x_refsource_BID, Broken link, Third-party advisory, Vulnerability database
- blog.trendmicro.comtrendlabs-security-intelligence/an-analysis-of-windows-zero-day…x_refsource_MISC, Exploit
- docs.microsoft.comMS14-060Vendor advisory, x_refsource_MS, Patch, Vendor advisory
- osvdb.org113140Vulnerability database, x_refsource_OSVDB, Broken link
- cisa.govknown-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2014-4114government-resource, US government resource
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<a href="https://intel.neosec.eu/en/cve/CVE-2014-4114"><img src="https://intel.neosec.eu/badge/cve/CVE-2014-4114.svg?lang=en" alt="CVE-2014-4114 – NEOSEC Intel" height="20"></a>