Take extra care when opening MS Word documents arriving by email or found on web sites. Microsoft has issued a new Security Advisory - number 929433 - warning that opening a 'specially crafted' Word document containing a 'malformed string' could give the document's author the same user rights that you have.
The company points out (though not quite in those words) that users whose accounts are configured to have administrative user rights could be worse affected than those working with fewer user rights.
Until Microsoft comes up a security update that addresses this vulnerability - and there's no clue yet when that will be - it's warning the public not to open or save Word files that come from un-trusted sources or arrive unexpectedly from trusted sources. Eeek!
The problem affects Works 2004, 2005 and 2006, not just Word.
And a good few generations of Word for Windows and Mac are affected - Word 2000, 2002, 2003, Word Viewer 2003, Word 2004 for Mac and Word 2004 v. X for Mac.
Microsoft issues this kinds of warning even when the risk is slight - to cover its behind and to be seen to be trying to deal with issues that arise from weaknesses or features in the original coding of programs and operating systems.
It's also the case that good anti-virus software is likely to spot malicious code in programs such as Word or, if nothing more, warn users about macros and other automated events.
Microsoft itself has a little applet - The Office Document Open Confirmation Tool - that Word 2000 users can install to prevents the automatic opening of documents from within Internet Explorer - or, at least warn, that this is going to happen and allow you to stop it happening.
Ideas why any f*ckwit might feel justified in creating a 'specially crafted' MS Word document? Find out more about the problem by reading the full Microsoft Security Advisory (929433), then feel free to comment in this thread in the HEXUS.lifestyle.news forum.
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External.links
Microsoft - Security Advisory (929433)Microsoft - The Office Document Open Confirmation Tool
