Microsoft closes another door to attackers by blocking Excel XLL files from the internet

Microsoft in March will start blocking Excel XLL add-ins from the internet to shut down an increasingly popular attack vector for miscreants. In a one-sentence note on its Microsoft 365 roadmap, the vendor said the move was in response to "the increasing number of malware attacks in recent months." Security researchers have …

[Anonymous Coward]

Thank God they quickly closed this loophole..

.. after all, it has only been around for some 5..6 years. How agile.

I'd say "feeling lucky yet?" but that's ™ Google now, I think.

[Anonymous Coward]

wrong answer

The correct thing for MS to do, is stop letting documents (and other apps) have access to OS files, and toss in some other common sense limits. But that would just be to simple of a fix. Also might stop people buying newer versions that only have more bloat, with the same insecurities - by design.

[david 12]

Re: wrong answer

... and stop letting exe and .bin have access to OS files. EXE, COM and BIN files are known virus vectors, and have been for 40 years. It's time for M$ to stop this nonsense.

[Tree]

What happened to XL?

Use Lotus 123. It works.

[Strahd Ivarius]

And as with VBA macros, users often will disregard the warning.

Users always disregard warnings!

[david 12]

"Microsoft block VBA"

Although that is the description used by Microsoft, it is a particularly poor description. -- a problem with trying to use one word to describe a system with several independent variables

In the brave new world of 'blocked' VBA, VBA, which was already blocked, must now be unblocked from a check box in Windows Explorer / File Explorer, rather than from a button in the Office Application, and a policy may be set to choose either behavior.