{"id":13257,"date":"2017-09-20T08:41:40","date_gmt":"2017-09-20T08:41:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digital-sentinel.com\/?p=13257"},"modified":"2020-02-01T11:39:52","modified_gmt":"2020-02-01T11:39:52","slug":"microsoft-office-vulnerabilities-mean-no-doc-safe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/digital-sentinel.com\/hack\/microsoft-office-vulnerabilities-mean-no-doc-safe\/","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft Office vulnerabilities mean no .doc is safe"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"speakableText\">It&#8217;s an unsafe Office environment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"speakableText\">Two cybersecurity firms have uncovered vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office files that have allowed hackers to install malware through Word documents. The exploit &#8212; referred to as &#8220;zero day,&#8221; because it hasn&#8217;t yet been patched &#8212; works on all Microsoft Office versions, with attacks stretching back to late January,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/securingtomorrow.mcafee.com\/mcafee-labs\/critical-office-zero-day-attacks-detected-wild\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-component=\"externalLink\">according to McAfee<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The suite of programs, which incorporates Word, Excel and PowerPoint, is used by 1.2 billion people,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.onmsft.com\/news\/microsoft-numbers-look-how-many-people-are-using-microsofts-products-and-services\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-component=\"externalLink\">according to Microsoft<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Microsoft plans to issue an update Tuesday to address the vulnerability. Tuesday also is the day that the software giant\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnet.com\/how-to\/windows-10-creators-update-download-install\/\">launches its momentous Windows 10 Creators Update<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Meanwhile, we encourage customers to practice safe computing habits online,&#8221; a Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement, &#8220;including exercising caution before opening unknown files and not downloading content from untrusted sources to avoid this type of issue.&#8221;<\/p>\n<figure class=\"image image-medium pull-right shortcode\">\n<div class=\"originalImage modal\" data-open=\"modal\" data-target=\"#105e0a05-54b9-41e5-a795-e2a09cc12003\" data-component=\"modalEnlargeImage\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/cnet3.cbsistatic.com\/img\/_u91HAXSOuLgkUuhw9cyy_FgTKQ=\/fit-in\/570x0\/2017\/04\/11\/105e0a05-54b9-41e5-a795-e2a09cc12003\/tax-4.jpg\" alt=\"tax-4.jpg\" width=\"570\" height=\"0\" \/><a class=\"clickToEnlarge\">Enlarge Image<\/a><\/div><figcaption>An email pretending to have tax information with a virus hidden in a Microsoft Word document.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"credit\">IBM Security Report<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The malware can be disguised as important files or documents sent over email, meaning a student&#8217;s homework or an office presentation could be harboring the next attack. You might even have to worry about your finances: Researchers have found that during tax season\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnet.com\/news\/tax-refunds-season-hackers-taxes-phishing-irs\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">hackers send spam emails pretending to be from a &#8220;tax officer&#8221;<\/a>\u00a0with a fake tax refund form attached as a Word document, with malware embedded.<\/p>\n<p>The attack cannot be activated if people open the documents in Office&#8217;s protected view, McAfee said.<\/p>\n<p>The exploit works like this: The attacker gives an RTF file a .doc extension name. Once the victim opens the disguised text document, it connects to the attacker&#8217;s servers and automatically downloads an HTML application file and launches it, giving the hacker full control of your device.<\/p>\n<p>If the exploit is successful, it closes the downloaded Word document and creates a fake copy of it, while quietly installing malware in the background.<\/p>\n<p>The vulnerability comes from Windows Object Linking and Embedding feature,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.fireeye.com\/blog\/threat-research\/2017\/04\/acknowledgement_ofa.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-component=\"externalLink\">according to FireEye<\/a>. The cybersecurity firm said it&#8217;s informed Microsoft and is coordinating with the company to address the vulnerability.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s an unsafe Office environment. Two cybersecurity firms have uncovered vulnerabilities in Microsoft [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":13258,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[67],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v18.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Microsoft Office vulnerabilities mean no .doc is safe - Digital Sentinel<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/digital-sentinel.com\/hack\/microsoft-office-vulnerabilities-mean-no-doc-safe\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Microsoft Office vulnerabilities mean no .doc is safe - Digital Sentinel\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It&#8217;s an unsafe Office environment. 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