Patches bring zero-day relief from PDF and PowerPoint flaws

Microsoft has released a solitary bulletin that covers 14 vulnerabilities in PowerPoint, including a zero-day bug that has been the target of hacker exploitation over recent weeks, as part of its May Patch Tuesday update. All versions of PowerPoint will need patching with the cumulative update, which earns Redmond's highest …

[Ash]

Yet one more string to the bow

OpenOffice.org and Foxit Reader both seem to be immune.

Funny, that.

[Jerome]

Nice timing

I was bitten by this Adobe vulnerability earlier this week. It's the first time a virus has gotten onto my computer in a decade. I have uninstalled Acrobat Reader and replaced it with Foxit. No Adobe product shall ever taint my PC again.

[Anonymous Coward]

Bah Humbug

Wouldnt happen on Apple/Linux/Unix/ZX81 Basic whats MS up to bloody poor show

[Anonymous Coward]

FFS

Please stop the "My (product from another company) works fine"

Of course it does. Its not the same product and therefore not that flaw.

Its like a factory recall on Vauxhall Astra and someone saying their Scoda Fabia works fine.

Get over yourselves and piss off.

[Anonymous Coward]

Im a bloody idiot

I read teh PDF exploit advisory and on that afternoon visisted a booby trapped site.

It asked if i wanted to read the pdf and i though "strange, i dont remember visiting one"

Then i remembered about the adisory. But for some reason. Unbe-known to me i clicked "Run" without looking. And i was bombarded with adverts.

Didnt take me longer then 5 minutes to clean up though

[Anonymous Coward]

i thought since...

..ash commented with useless stuff (and seems to forget that those bits of software willhave security patchs of there own) i would join in too!

flibble flobble dipsy po gaga gaga ho bo ho!

[Inachu]

What makes this surprising is....

Why haven't the top 10 software companies hired investigators to find the people responsible for Vundo infections and hold them in jail for 20 years and make them clean computers of infections for the rest of their lives.

This would make me happy.

[Anonymous Cowherd]

My Scoda Fabia works fine

The honourable Ash is quite correct. The days when Powerpoint and Acrobat were respectively the only game in town are long gone. There are now really good alternatives and it is worth noting that they offer the same or very similar functionality, with less bloat, and without the vulnerabilities.

Why wait in fear for, for instance, a huge Acrobat fix to be released when your can install the whole of Foxit right away, and very probably with a smaller download.

To continue the automotive metaphor of Mr FFS, when you have fixed a ridiculous number of punctures (with no external cause) on a tyre it is a sure sign that you need to give up and get a completely new tyre.

[Anonymous Coward]

@Anonymous Cowheard

Yea, but you wouldn't go with a totally different make of car for punctures. You'd get the fix and avoid driving on the glass.

[Anonymous Cowherd]

Tyred software

Exactly ! The wise course is to learn which inferior component caused the problem and then make the necessary changes to avoid a future repetition.

One would not replace ones PC, just the repeatedly faulty software.