'Critical' patch for Office coming

Microsoft plans to release a "critical" security update for Office next week, one of three bulletins it will distribute as part of its monthly patch cycle.

The other two updates are for Windows and are rated as "important," its second-highest ranking, the software giant said in an advisory Thursday. The brief advisory is designed to give IT administrators advance notice to prepare for the patches once they are distributed.

Further details on the flaws will be posted on Microsoft's security Web site, once the bulletins are issued Tuesday morning.

Microsoft has had its share of zero-day exploits, or malicious software released the same day a flaw is made public, in applications in Office. Earlier this week, Microsoft's Word 2000, which is part of the productivity suite, was hit with a zero-day attack that could compromise systems remotely. The vulnerability can be exploited by the user opening a malicious document.

And in June, an Excel vulnerability was the target of a zero-day attack. In that case, a system was at risk if a user opened a malicious Excel database document.

[Lindy01]

Here is clue.....

everyone turn on Auto-updates....end of story. No more lame articles on news.com.

Where's the "Critical" in the headline?

Where's the obligatory "Critical" in the headline so
http://www.teckmagazine.com/content/view/631/43/
CNET can play on computer terrorism.

[itsallj]

2nd that notion

2nd that.

[john55440]

Here is clue.....

>everyone turn on Auto-updates....end of story.<

Yup.

-Virus/worm-free since 1987, on DOS & Windows computers.

[solomonrex]

slow....except for one huge thing

Their rented music was hacked. Which is a big deal, I would think, since it's the only thing close to an advantage that WMP has on Itunes.

Oh, and Vista has already been patched. I lost the office pool on that one, I thought it would at least be released before it had security problems.

So, a slow September Patch Tuesday, but another bad month for Microsoft.

[extinctone]

Clue? I must have missed something...

>everyone turn on Auto-updates....end of story

Maybe try using a product that is secure to begin with? Count the number of security vulnerabilities in ALL non-MS office products since the dawn of time, you'll find the number less than one single product, MS Office, this year alone.

>Oh, and Vista has already been patched. I lost
>the office pool on that one, I thought it would
>at least be released before it had security
>problems.

I almost can't believe that one...Is it an April Fools joke running late? MS operating systems have built in security issues from the get-go, MS engineers call them "features" put in "by design."

[Mister Winky]

You're Right (Actually, no)

From now on, I vow to only use software that never needs security updates or functional patches. Let's see, that leaves me with...oh, wait...THERE'S NO SUCH THING! No such OSes either.

A problem is identified, a problem is fixed, people go about their lives and business. What's the big deal?

-Mister Winky