Nasty new MS Word insecurity exploit

[2muchcoffeeman]

Checked and verified through Slashdot and my own sources ...

0xbl00d writes

"Eweek.com is reporting a new Microsoft Word zero-day attack underway. Microsoft issued a security advisory to acknowledge the unpatched flaw, which affects Microsoft Word 2000, Microsoft Word 2002, Microsoft Office Word 2003, Microsoft Word Viewer 2003, Microsoft Word 2004 for Mac and Microsoft Word 2004 v. X for Mac. The Microsoft Works 2004, 2005 and 2006 suites are also affected because they include Microsoft Word. Simply opening a word document will launch the exploit. There are no pre-patch workarounds or anti-virus signatures available. Microsoft suggests that users 'not open or save Word files,' even from trusted sources."

http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/12/06/0230209

Here's the technical bulletin from Redmond, which is not quite as alarmist as the /. contributor wanted people to believe ... on the other hand, it's not far away from being that alarmist: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/advisory/929433.mspx

Do not open or save Word files that you receive from un-trusted sources or that you receive unexpectedly from trusted sources. This vulnerability could be exploited when a user opens a specially crafted Word file.

 

[Ledbetter]

Thanks for the alert.