📄 Description (English)
Microsoft Office OLE DLL Side Loading Vulnerability — Microsoft Office Object Linking & Embedding (OLE) dynamic link library (DLL) contains a side loading vulnerability due to it improperly validating input before loading libraries. Successful exploitation allows for remote code execution.
🤖 AI Executive Summary
CVE-2016-3235 is a critical DLL side-loading vulnerability in Microsoft Office OLE that allows remote code execution by exploiting improper input validation before loading libraries. With a CVSS score of 9.0 and known exploits available, this vulnerability poses a severe risk to organizations relying on Microsoft Office. An attacker can execute arbitrary code in the context of the current user by tricking them into opening a specially crafted document. Although a patch has been available since June 2016, unpatched legacy systems remain highly vulnerable.
📄 Description (Arabic)
🤖 AI Intelligence Analysis Analyzed: Apr 5, 2026 10:48
🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia Impact Assessment
This vulnerability has broad impact across all Saudi sectors that use Microsoft Office, which is virtually universal. Government entities regulated by NCA, banking institutions under SAMA oversight, energy sector organizations including ARAMCO and its contractors, telecom providers like STC, and healthcare organizations are all at risk. Saudi organizations that maintain legacy Office installations or have slow patch cycles are particularly vulnerable. The DLL side-loading nature of this exploit makes it especially dangerous in environments where users frequently exchange Office documents, which is common in Saudi government and business communications.
🏢 Affected Saudi Sectors
Government
Banking
Energy
Telecom
Healthcare
Education
Defense
Retail
⚖️ Saudi Risk Score (AI)
7.5
/ 10.0
🔧 Remediation Steps (English)
Immediate Actions:
1. Apply Microsoft Security Bulletin MS16-070 (KB3163610) immediately on all affected Microsoft Office installations.
2. Conduct an inventory of all Microsoft Office versions across the organization to identify unpatched systems.
Patching Guidance:
- Update Microsoft Office to the latest supported version with all cumulative security updates applied.
- Prioritize patching on systems handling sensitive documents and those with internet-facing exposure.
Compensating Controls:
- Implement application whitelisting to prevent unauthorized DLL loading.
- Configure Windows Defender Application Control (WDAC) or AppLocker to restrict DLL loading paths.
- Enable Protected View in Microsoft Office to prevent automatic execution of embedded content.
- Restrict user permissions to prevent writing to system directories where DLLs are loaded.
- Deploy email filtering to block suspicious Office document attachments.
Detection Rules:
- Monitor for unusual DLL loading patterns from non-standard directories using Sysmon Event ID 7.
- Create SIEM alerts for Office processes loading DLLs from user-writable directories.
- Deploy YARA rules to detect known exploit payloads targeting this vulnerability.
🔧 خطوات المعالجة (العربية)
الإجراءات الفورية:
1. تطبيق نشرة أمان Microsoft رقم MS16-070 (KB3163610) فوراً على جميع تثبيتات Microsoft Office المتأثرة.
2. إجراء جرد لجميع إصدارات Microsoft Office عبر المؤسسة لتحديد الأنظمة غير المحدثة.
إرشادات التصحيح:
- تحديث Microsoft Office إلى أحدث إصدار مدعوم مع تطبيق جميع التحديثات الأمنية التراكمية.
- إعطاء الأولوية للتصحيح على الأنظمة التي تتعامل مع المستندات الحساسة والمعرضة للإنترنت.
الضوابط التعويضية:
- تنفيذ القوائم البيضاء للتطبيقات لمنع تحميل DLL غير المصرح به.
- تكوين Windows Defender Application Control أو AppLocker لتقييد مسارات تحميل DLL.
- تمكين العرض المحمي في Microsoft Office لمنع التنفيذ التلقائي للمحتوى المضمن.
- تقييد أذونات المستخدم لمنع الكتابة في أدلة النظام حيث يتم تحميل DLL.
- نشر تصفية البريد الإلكتروني لحظر مرفقات مستندات Office المشبوهة.
قواعد الكشف:
- مراقبة أنماط تحميل DLL غير العادية من أدلة غير قياسية باستخدام Sysmon Event ID 7.
- إنشاء تنبيهات SIEM لعمليات Office التي تحمل DLL من أدلة قابلة للكتابة من قبل المستخدم.
- نشر قواعد YARA للكشف عن حمولات الاستغلال المعروفة التي تستهدف هذه الثغرة.
📋 Regulatory Compliance Mapping
🟢 NCA ECC 2024
2-3-1 (Patch Management)
2-5-1 (Malware Protection)
2-6-1 (Application Security)
2-2-1 (Asset Management)
🔵 SAMA CSF
3.3.3 (Patch Management)
3.3.5 (Malware Protection)
3.3.4 (Secure Configuration)
3.4.1 (Incident Management)
🟡 ISO 27001:2022
A.8.8 (Management of technical vulnerabilities)
A.8.7 (Protection against malware)
A.8.19 (Installation of software on operational systems)
A.8.9 (Configuration management)
🟣 PCI DSS v4.0
6.3.3 (Install critical security patches within one month)
5.2 (Deploy anti-malware mechanisms)
6.2 (Establish a process to identify and assign risk ranking to newly discovered vulnerabilities)
🔗 References & Sources 0
No references.
📦 Affected Products / CPE 1 entries
Microsoft:Office