CVE-2024-57096 is a medium-severity vulnerability affecting WPS Office versions prior to 19302. The vulnerability allows a local attacker with limited privileges (PR:L) to obtain sensitive information by opening a specially crafted file. The attack vector is local (AV:L), meaning the attacker must have access to the victim's machine to exploit this issue. No user interaction beyond opening the crafted file is required (UI:N). The vulnerability impacts confidentiality (C:H) but does not affect integrity or availability (I:N/A:N). The underlying weakness corresponds to CWE-200, which relates to information exposure. Although the exact technical details and affected components within WPS Office are not specified, the vulnerability likely involves improper handling or parsing of file contents that leads to unauthorized disclosure of sensitive data stored or processed by the application. No known exploits are currently reported in the wild, and no patches or fixes have been linked yet. The CVSS 3.1 base score is 5.5, reflecting a moderate risk due to the local attack vector and requirement for some privileges, but with high confidentiality impact.

For European organizations, this vulnerability poses a risk primarily to environments where WPS Office is deployed on user endpoints or workstations, especially in sectors handling sensitive or confidential information such as finance, legal, healthcare, and government. Since exploitation requires local access, the threat is more relevant in scenarios where insider threats or compromised user accounts exist. An attacker who can execute this exploit could extract sensitive data from the victim's documents or application memory, potentially leading to data leaks or exposure of confidential business information. This could result in regulatory compliance issues under GDPR if personal or sensitive data is exposed. However, the lack of remote exploitability limits the scale of impact compared to network-based vulnerabilities. Organizations with strict endpoint security and access controls will be less affected, but those with lax local privilege management or shared workstations could face higher risk.

To mitigate this vulnerability, European organizations should: 1) Ensure that WPS Office is updated promptly once a patch or security update is released by the vendor. 2) Restrict local user privileges to the minimum necessary, preventing untrusted users from executing or opening files in WPS Office. 3) Implement endpoint security controls such as application whitelisting and file integrity monitoring to detect and block suspicious crafted files. 4) Educate users about the risks of opening files from untrusted sources, even locally. 5) Employ data loss prevention (DLP) solutions to monitor and prevent unauthorized data exfiltration. 6) Conduct regular audits of local user accounts and permissions to minimize insider threat risks. 7) Consider network segmentation and endpoint isolation for sensitive environments to reduce the likelihood of local attacker presence.