Exploit Wednesday follows Patch Tuesday Word update

The trend for exploiting vulnerabilities around the same time as Microsoft's monthly Patch Tuesday update continues. Hackers have crafted a new Word exploit based on a memory corruption vulnerability addressed by Microsoft on Tuesday. The flaw was already exploited prior to the release of the fix, according to Microsoft. …

[Dam]

OH NO PLEASE NO

Now the machines at work running OpenOffice will get infected :'(

Oh wait...

[Anonymous Coward]

Huh? What?

Microsoft software has holes in it? I suppose next someone's gonna tell me that there is no such thing as the Easter Bunny.

[Cameron Colley]

Not hard to find the perpetrator.

Surely it won't be hard to track down the miscreant who wrote this piece of malware -- there can't be more than one Mac-using VXer surely?

[Will Hill]

Throws out your work. What a feature!

"The good news is that the default configuration in Microsoft Office 2007 and Office 2003, Service Pack 3 will not allow you to open some older Office file formats, including Office for Macintosh documents," Symantec notes.

Wow, thanks. I wonder when their new ooxml will have features like that.

[Anonymous Coward]

IGNORE

Test. Sorry.

New machine here... couldn't see any other way to logon and save my password etc.

[Geoff Mackenzie]

IGNORE ME TOO

This isn't a test, it's a bona fide response, but I rarely say anything interesting so save yourself the time :)

Was just gonna say, Re: Huh? What?, it's actually true, there is no Easter Bunny. I know, it weird isn't it? To think that for all these years I believed in a supernatural being for which there is no evidence, just because my family and school perpetuated a lie they didn't really believe... I feel a strange void.

Headline for the article by the way: "Backward compatibility sabotage saves some suckers."

[Matthew Sullivan]

.... including Office for Macintosh documents

Typical, spend $349 on Mac Office, and now they break it's compatibility with other office products.

Time to get rid of M$ and put in OpenOffice around the entire office to ensure compatibility I think.

/ Mat

[Karl Lattimer]

0day turnover

The trend of exploiting an issue within days of the fix coming out is not a microsoft thing. Exploit developers regularly keep the 0day exploits within their 'crew' until the day a fix is released, then they release the exploit for 'props'.

The thing to remember is that exploits are rarely ever released while they're still big enough to cause serious damage. They're only ever released when they can be used in a limited capacity against those who don't stay up to date.

[Pascal Monett]

I can't believe it

"the default configuration in Microsoft Office 2007 and Office 2003, Service Pack 3 will not allow you to open some older Office file formats, including Office for Macintosh documents"

So, Microsoft trashing its own compatibility is now a feature ? And a security one at that ?

And I note that this is not the first time it happens. Office 2000 was already a dog with Office 98 formats. Does anyone think that businesses may be avoiding Office 2007 on purpose ?

On the other hand, one must look at the achievement : Microsoft Office is now a cross-platform virus writing machine. Write it on a Mac and crash a Windows box !

Is that progress ? Or is it ?