WARNING--Microsoft Word 2004 and Word v.X for the Mac Contain Exploited Vulnerability

Microsoft issued a Security Advisory for a number of its Word products including Word 2004 for the Mac and Word v.X for the Mac. The advisory summary states:

Microsoft is investigating a new report of limited "zero-day" attacks using a vulnerability in 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, as well as Microsoft Works 2004, 2005, and 2006.

In order for this attack to be carried out, a user must first open a malicious Word file attached to an e-mail or otherwise provided to them by an attacker.

As a best practice, users should always exercise extreme caution when opening unsolicited attachments from both known and unknown sources.

We occasionally use Word 2004 and Word v.X and have not encountered a problem yet. While we never open a file from an unknown source, it is still possible to get a problem document from a known source and off the web from a known Web site.

Hopefully, Microsoft will issue a patch soon. [Bill Fox]