CVE-2009-0556: Microsoft Office PowerPoint Code Injection Vulnerability

CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities

Name

Microsoft Office PowerPoint Code Injection Vulnerability

Vendor

Microsoft

Product

Office

Added to the catalog

2026-01-07

Due date for US federal agencies

2026-01-28

Weaknesses

CWE-94

Catalog version

2026.10.30

Microsoft Office PowerPoint contains a code injection vulnerability that allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via a PowerPoint file with an OutlineTextRefAtom containing an invalid index value that triggers memory corruption.

Required action (CISA)

Apply mitigations per vendor instructions, follow applicable BOD 22-01 guidance for cloud services, or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable.

Ransomware use: CISA does not mark known use of this vulnerability in ransomware campaigns.

Links in CISA's notes

• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/security-updates/securitybulletins/2009/ms09-017
• https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2009-0556

Read on 2026-11-02T23:39:54.475Z under licence cisa-kev-cc0@b0067899 from https://www.cisa.gov/sites/default/files/feeds/known_exploited_vulnerabilities.json

NVD analysis

Status

Analyzed

Published

2009-04-03T18:30:00.610

Last modified

2026-06-16T23:05:17.900

Weaknesses

CWE-94

Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2000 SP3, 2002 SP3, and 2003 SP3, and PowerPoint in Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac, allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via a PowerPoint file with an OutlineTextRefAtom containing an an invalid index value that triggers memory corruption, as exploited in the wild in April 2009 by Exploit:Win32/Apptom.gen, aka "Memory Corruption Vulnerability."

References

• http://blogs.technet.com/mmpc/archive/2009/04/02/new-0-day-exploits-using-powerpoint-files.aspx (Vendor Advisory)
• http://blogs.technet.com/msrc/archive/2009/04/02/microsoft-security-advisory-969136.aspx (Vendor Advisory)
• http://blogs.technet.com/srd/archive/2009/04/02/investigating-the-new-powerpoint-issue.aspx (Vendor Advisory)
• http://osvdb.org/53182 (Broken Link)
• http://secunia.com/advisories/34572 (Vendor Advisory)
• http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/627331 (US Government Resource)
• http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/advisory/969136.mspx (Patch, Vendor Advisory)
• http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/1/503453/100/0/threaded (Broken Link)
• http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/34351 (Broken Link)
• http://www.securitytracker.com/id?1021967 (Broken Link)
• http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/techalerts/TA09-132A.html (US Government Resource)
• http://www.vupen.com/english/advisories/2009/0915 (Vendor Advisory)
• http://www.vupen.com/english/advisories/2009/1290 (Broken Link)
• http://www.zerodayinitiative.com/advisories/ZDI-09-019 (Third Party Advisory)
• https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/security-updates/securitybulletins/2009/ms09-017 (Vendor Advisory)
• https://exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com/vulnerabilities/49632 (Third Party Advisory)
• https://oval.cisecurity.org/repository/search/definition/oval%3Aorg.mitre.oval%3Adef%3A6204 (Broken Link)
• https://oval.cisecurity.org/repository/search/definition/oval%3Aorg.mitre.oval%3Adef%3A6279 (Broken Link)
• http://blogs.technet.com/mmpc/archive/2009/04/02/new-0-day-exploits-using-powerpoint-files.aspx (Vendor Advisory)
• http://blogs.technet.com/msrc/archive/2009/04/02/microsoft-security-advisory-969136.aspx (Vendor Advisory)
• http://blogs.technet.com/srd/archive/2009/04/02/investigating-the-new-powerpoint-issue.aspx (Vendor Advisory)
• http://osvdb.org/53182 (Broken Link)
• http://secunia.com/advisories/34572 (Vendor Advisory)
• http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/627331 (US Government Resource)
• http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/advisory/969136.mspx (Patch, Vendor Advisory)
• http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/1/503453/100/0/threaded (Broken Link)
• http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/34351 (Broken Link)
• http://www.securitytracker.com/id?1021967 (Broken Link)
• http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/techalerts/TA09-132A.html (US Government Resource)
• http://www.vupen.com/english/advisories/2009/0915 (Vendor Advisory)
• http://www.vupen.com/english/advisories/2009/1290 (Broken Link)
• http://www.zerodayinitiative.com/advisories/ZDI-09-019 (Third Party Advisory)
• https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/security-updates/securitybulletins/2009/ms09-017 (Vendor Advisory)
• https://exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com/vulnerabilities/49632 (Third Party Advisory)
• https://oval.cisecurity.org/repository/search/definition/oval%3Aorg.mitre.oval%3Adef%3A6204 (Broken Link)
• https://oval.cisecurity.org/repository/search/definition/oval%3Aorg.mitre.oval%3Adef%3A6279 (Broken Link)
• https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2009-0556 (US Government Resource)

This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD.

Read on 2026-11-02T23:41:28.906Z under licence nvd-api-terms-of-use@ff2a5288 from https://services.nvd.nist.gov/rest/json/cves/2.0?cveId=CVE-2009-0556

CVE record

Assigner

microsoft

State

PUBLISHED

Published

2009-04-03T18:00:00.000Z

Updated

2026-01-08T04:55:23.788Z

Problem types

n/a

Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2000 SP3, 2002 SP3, and 2003 SP3, and PowerPoint in Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac, allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via a PowerPoint file with an OutlineTextRefAtom containing an an invalid index value that triggers memory corruption, as exploited in the wild in April 2009 by Exploit:Win32/Apptom.gen, aka "Memory Corruption Vulnerability."

References

• http://www.zerodayinitiative.com/advisories/ZDI-09-019
• http://blogs.technet.com/mmpc/archive/2009/04/02/new-0-day-exploits-using-powerpoint-files.aspx
• ADV-2009-1290
• 53182
• MS09-017
• powerpoint-unspecified-code-execution(49632)
• 34351
• ADV-2009-0915
• http://blogs.technet.com/msrc/archive/2009/04/02/microsoft-security-advisory-969136.aspx
• http://blogs.technet.com/srd/archive/2009/04/02/investigating-the-new-powerpoint-issue.aspx
• oval:org.mitre.oval:def:6279
• 34572
• 1021967
• TA09-132A
• http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/advisory/969136.mspx
• VU#627331
• 20090512 ZDI-09-019: Microsoft Office PowerPoint OutlineTextRefAtom Parsing Memory Corruption Vulnerability
• oval:org.mitre.oval:def:6204

Read on 2026-11-03T00:12:10.169Z under licence cve-terms-of-use@81bfa2f3 from https://raw.githubusercontent.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/main/cves/2009/0xxx/CVE-2009-0556.json

Defensive techniques (MITRE D3FEND)

D3FEND maps these defensive techniques to the weakness (CWE) that NVD lists for this CVE, through the digital artifacts the weakness affects. D3FEND does not say they stop this vulnerability.

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