French researchers find OpenOffice more vulnerable than Office

Computer security experts at France's Department of Defense have concluded that OpenOffice is more vulnerable to security problems than its closed-source counterpart, Microsoft Office, according to a report at ZDNet France.

The article, published earlier in July, said that cryptography experts were able to create viruses which compromised the security of OpenOffice.

"We can affirm that OpenOffice appears more dangerous than its commercial equivalent from Microsoft," a French Department of Defense researcher is quoted saying.

But he blames the vulnerability on OpenOffice's immaturity relative to Microsoft Office, rather than a fundamental architectural problem.

"One must not throw out the baby with the bathwater: it's a young product and it was never thought through in terms of security. Until now, the priority was to create as many features as Microsoft Office," he said.

The ZDNet France article notes that the security assessment constitutes "a real danger" to French government agencies. That's because OpenOffice is being used by the French Finance and Defense Ministries, according to the article.