Author:
Cezar Renta
Jul 11th, 2008
A new bug within Microsoft Office seems to allow attackers to plant Trojan horses within our computers. This new exploit isn’t confirmed at this moment, Symantec, the security company behind this finding, is still in discussions with MIcrosoft to confirm this exploit. Symantec states that some MS Office versions, even if fully patched, are affected.
Microsoft released a Security Advisory, with further details regarding this security flaw. Within this security report, they state:
“Microsoft is investigating new public reports of a possible vulnerability in Microsoft Office Word 2002 Service Pack 3. Our initial investigation indicates that customers who use all other supported versions of Microsoft Office Word, Microsoft Office Word Viewer, Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats, and Microsoft Office for Mac are not affected.”
Those type of attacks were signaled in the past by several security companies and the main attack pattern seems to be the same. The attacker needs to trick the user into opening a malicous Word document, allowing them to install malicous codes on the PC. The latest Trojan Horse discovered by Symantec is Backdoor.Darkmoon. This Trojan acts as a keylogger, recording user keystrokes. While the latest Norton Antivirus detects this Trojan Horse, they recommend to avoid opening unsolicited or suspicious documents.
