Microsoft Word Gets Hacked

No computer program is 100% safe. Any program, no matter how good the programmer behind it was, can be hacked. Even big companies, the ones that have hundreds of technicians and programmers, are still vulnerable to hackers. Just take a look at the most recent hacks on one of the most widely used pieces of software in the world, Microsoft Word.

According to Microsoft officials last Tuesday, hackers are now exploiting a vulnerability in Microsoft Word in order to plant malware on Windows PCs. The bug, found in Microsoft Word 2002, 2003, 2007 and 2010, was patched back on November 9th, 2010, as a part of Microsoft's monthly security update.

Word 2008 and 2011 for the Mac have been patched as well, however, Microsoft has not yet issued a fix for the same flaw in Word 2004. The attacks, on the other hand, only affect Windows versions of the suite.

According to the Microsoft Malware Protection Center (MMPC), which is the group that investigates attack codes and also issues signature updates for the company's antivirus software, the first exploits were found last week. When the Word patch was shipped last month, the bug was rated as a "1" on the exploitability index. What that number means is that a working attack would manifest within 30 days.

The attack uses a malicious Rich Text Format (RTF) file to generate a stack overflow in Word on Windows, according to MMPC researcher Rodel Finones. Once a successful exploit takes place, the attack codes download and run a Trojan horse on the PC. Microsoft rated this RTF vulnerability as "critical" in Word 2007 as well as 2010 last month. However it was only listed as "important" in all other affected versions.

It is thought that this bug was a hacker choice due to the fact that users running Office 2007 or 2010 could be attacked if they made the simple mistake of previewing a specially-crafted RTF document in the Outlook e-mail client.

According to Jason Miller, the Data and Security Team Manager for Shavik Technologies, "Once a malformed message hits the Outlook preview pane, remote code can be executed. You should patch this right away." This is what he said when Microsoft released the patch.

Finones stated that the code "reliably exploits this Word vulnerability" and also urged users who have yet to install the November patch to do so immediately.

Source: Computer World

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Microsoft Office and Word Sales to be Banned

Practically everybody that uses a computer more than likely uses Microsoft Office. But what if one day you could no longer buy the popular Microsoft Office? Well that may be closer to a reality then many people might think. That's right, the U.S. Supreme Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has just upheld a decision that would ban the sales of Microsoft Word and Office starting January 11, 2010.

Way back in May, a patent infringement suit was filed by XML specialists i4i against Microsoft under the circumstances that Word's handling of.xml, .docx and .docm files was an infringement on i4i's patented XML handling algorithms. Although Microsoft did lose this case, the case against further sale of Microsoft Word was put on hold pending results of another appeal.

Unfortunately for Microsoft they lost again and it is expected that the company will appeal once more as well as submit a request for the injunction to be put on hold and taken to the Supreme Court or for Microsoft and i4i to settle. i4i isn't patent greedy or trying to tear down Microsoft or anything like that however.

i4i is a 30 person database design company which shipped one of the first ever XML plugins for Office. i4i is also credited with being responsible for revamping the whole USPTO database around XML so that it would be compatible with the 2000 version of Microsoft Word. The patents that i4i is suing over, surprisingly enough, do not cover XML itself. Instead they cover the specific algorithms used to read and write custom XML. This means all you OpenOffice users can breathe a sigh of relief because i4i stated that the law suit does not infringe. This is also good news for current Microsoft Office users because they, more likely than not, won't be affected. The suit is only intended to affect future sales of Office and Word.

Some more good news from Microsoft is that the company is working quickly to create versions of Microsoft Word 2007 and Microsoft Office 2007 that do not have the XML features, which Microsoft claims are "little-used", by the injunction date of January 11, 2010. Microsoft also stated that the beta version of Microsoft Office 2010, which is available for download, will not contain the technology covered in the suit. Microsoft is also considering another appeal so for now all we can do is wait and listen.

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