Microsoft Corp warned on Wednesday that users of its Office software were at risk of having their computers taken over by an attacker unless they applied a patch to correct the problem.
The world's largest software maker said a "critical" flaw in its Visual Basic for Applications software, used to develop applications for Windows and Office, could enable a malicious programmer to create documents that would launch attacks on unsuspecting users.
Microsoft has vowed to improve security and reliability of its software, which has been hit by several high-profile flaws this year. The Slammer worm nearly brought the Internet to a halt in January while the Blaster worm and its variants crippled hundreds of thousands of computers in August.
The flaw exploited by Blaster first appeared in a Microsoft security bulletin in mid-July, which was followed by the release of the worm sometime during the first week of August.
While experts said that it is difficult to determine whether the Blaster worm was created in response to the July security bulletin, they added that there was a slight risk that the latest disclosure could spawn a new virus.
Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft urged users in a security bulletin to apply the software fix.
At risk were recent versions of Microsoft's Access, Excel, PowerPoint, Publisher, Visio, Word and Works applications, which are part of the Office family of software used in a range of tasks such as creating databases, documents, spreadsheets and presentations as well as publishing documents and Web pages. Some applications from Microsoft's Great Plains business software division were also affected, Microsoft said.
A user could trigger an attack by opening a document for any program that contains Visual Basic components, the company said.
Experts said that any virus that exploits the Visual Basic flaw was unlikely to cause major damage.
"There are a number of factors that minimize the risk in this case," said Oliver Friedrichs, a senior manager at computer security and services provider Symantec Corp.
"You need to open a document that someone sends to you, where with Blaster you simply had to be on the Internet," he said.
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
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‘SOMETHING SPECIAL’: Donald Trump vowed to reward his supporters, while President William Lai said he was confident the Taiwan-US partnership would continue Donald Trump was elected the 47th president of the US early yesterday morning, an extraordinary comeback for a former president who was convicted of felony charges and survived two assassination attempts. With a win in Wisconsin, Trump cleared the 270 electoral votes needed to clinch the presidency. As of press time last night, The Associated Press had Trump on 277 electoral college votes to 224 for US Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party’s nominee, with Alaska, Arizona, Maine, Michigan and Nevada yet to finalize results. He had 71,289,216 votes nationwide, or 51 percent, while Harris had 66,360,324 (47.5 percent). “We’ve been through so
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